A Canadian space tourist and two career astronauts are en
route to the International Space Station (ISS).
The trio is due to dock at the orbital outpost at 4:37 a.m.
EDT (0837 GMT), where paying passenger Guy
Laliberte - founder of circus troupe Cirque du Soleil - will spend about 10
days. His two crewmates, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim
Suraev, are set to join the station crew for a six-month stay.
Laliberte, Williams and Suraev blasted
off on their Russian-built Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft Wednesday from the Central
Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
"The Soyuz is very small - it's as if you're triplets
in a womb," Williams said Tuesday before liftoff.
After arriving, crews on both the Soyuz and the space
station will work to seal the link between their vehicles before opening the
hatches at about 7:40 a.m. EDT (1140 GMT). The new arrivals will be met by
current station commander Gennady Padalka, a cosmonaut, along with Belgian
astronaut Frank De Winne, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk,
Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and NASA astronauts Nicole Stott and Michael
Barratt.
The Soyuz-TMA-16's arrival Wednesday will mark the first
time three Soyuz spacecraft have been simultaneously docked at the orbiting
laboratory.
Poetic Social Mission
Laliberte plans to spend his time in space publicizing water
conservation issues.
In addition to his career as an acrobat, Laliberte is the
founder of ONE DROP, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting world
poverty through working to provide global access to clean water. The highlight
of his space voyage will be an Oct.
9 performance, where Laliberte will recite a poetic story about water, with
help from artists and personalities webcasting along with him from 14 cities
around the world.
"When I founded ONE DROP, it was (or rather, it still
is) desperately urgent to do something to protect water," Laliberte wrote
before launch on his blog at OneDrop.org. "ONE DROP is already acting in
practical terms, but in the project of going into space, I saw an innovative
opportunity, reflecting the image of Cirque
du Soleil and my own image, too."
Laliberte hopes the event, which will include appearances by
Al Gore, Shakira, U2, Peter Gabriel and more, will spread the word about water
in a creative way. It is also the first big artistic event to be performed live
from space.
Laliberte's spaceflight, which he calls the "Poetic
Social Mission," isn't purely altruistic.
"Of course, it is thanks to my own financial situation
that I have been able to experience such an adventure," he wrote.
"And yes, I am also making a personal dream come true through this
mission."
The project won't leave too much time for goofing around,
but Laliberte said he plans to squeeze in some fun, including tickle-fests with
his crewmates and passing out a red clown nose to everyone onboard to wear.
"I'm very excited about this journey I'm undertaking
and everyone I'm meeting through it," he wrote. "This is both a
personal challenge, as everything I'm experiencing here is new to me, and a
grand project that will benefit my ONE DROP Foundation as well as Cirque du
Soleil."
New Expedition
Soon after Williams
and Suraev arrive on the space station they will take part in a transition
ceremony to mark the beginning of the ISS Expedition 21 mission. It will be the
second station increment with a six-person crew, doubled from the previous crew
complement of three.
"Now we're a much bigger team with six on board,"
Williams said in a preflight interview. "I'm looking forward to the
challenge of six-crew operations."
Williams has been to the space station twice on previous
missions. The orbiting laboratory will be about the double the size it was the
last time he saw it, he said, and is now almost completely assembled.
"It's not over when we complete it," Williams
said. "When we complete it, we need to utilize it. My hope is that we get
the full utilization out of this magnificent technical accomplishment."
Indeed, the Expedition 21 crew plans a challenging full
slate of scientific research to take advantage of the orbiting lab facilities.
During the busy mission, the resident spaceflyers will host
two visiting space shuttle missions, one more Soyuz flight, and a handful of
unmanned cargo craft arrivals. Among the new supplies and equipment to be
delivered on these flights is a new node module named Tranquility, which will
include a panoramic window called the Cupola.
The Soyuz-TMA-16's arrival Wednesday will mark the first
time three Soyuz spacecraft have been simultaneously docked at the ISS.
The expedition will also include a spacewalk, or
extravehicular activity (EVA) in NASA parlance, in which rookie flyer Suraev
will take part.
"I do have just one EVA during my mission," he
said in a preflight interview. "On the personal side, I'm really looking
forward to the EVA. And as a professional, I really want to not make mistakes
during my flight."
Guy Laliberte is chronicling his Poetic Social Mission using
Twitter ("ONEDROPdotorg"), Facebook and the Web site: OneDrop.org.
SPACE.com is providing full coverage of the launch of
Laliberte and the Expedition 21 crew with Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz in New
York. Click here for mission updates
and live mission coverage.
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