Guy Laliberte, 50, a Canadian who spent millions from a personal fortune on his two week visit to the International Space Station (ISS), is likely to be the last such "space tourist" for several years.

He blasted off on schedule from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome, located in neighbouring Kazakhstan, at 0714 GMT alongside a professional Russian cosmonaut and a US astronaut.

Televised images showed the three crew members waving at mission control from the cockpit of the Soyuz spacecraft with a toy lion mascot dangling from the ceiling.

The Soyuz successfully reached its designated orbit and is due to dock with the ISS on Friday at 0835 GMT.

Laliberte, a former fire-eater and stiltwalker, is taking nine red clown noses into space -- one for each member of the ISS crew -- and has said he will not abandon his lighter side once in space.

"I am going with my sense of humour. Even in serious things you need to leave a place for humour," the Quebec City native said ahead of the mission.

He confessed to "tickling" his crewmates during training and promised to repeat this in orbit when they were sleeping. In keeping with the light-hearded approach, all three broke into song as they boarded the capsule.

Laliberte is planning on October 9 to preside from the ISS over what he has called the first ever artistic mission from space which will take place in a dozen cities around the world and involve music, dancing and images.

The event will be based on a poetic tale imagined by Laliberte and written by the Canadian author Yann Martel, who wrote the Booker Prize-winning novel "Life of Pi".

Laliberte says his mission has a serious aim -- to raise awareness of global water shortages worldwide and to promote his foundation that works to preserve the earth's freshwater reserves.

Despite saying he was initially in bad shape, Laliberte embraced his weeks of training with enthusiasm. But he also admitted he had little patience for the intricacies of learning Russian.

"Guy will now have two weeks to study Russian in orbit," quipped the head of Russia's space agency Anatoly Perminov, after Laliberte managed only to say "thank you" in Russian as he bade farewell ahead of lift-off.

The circus founder, the seventh person to go into space as a tourist, could be the last for some time as seats will be limited aboard the Soyuz once NASA takes its shuttles out of service from 2010.

"When we have the chance we will send another tourist into space but for the moment we don't know which year it will be," said Perminov, confirming there will be no space tourist in 2010.

Laliberte is travelling with US astronaut Jeffrey Williams, a veteran of two space flights, and Russia's Maxim Surayev, a member of Russia's space team for a decade who will also be undertaking his maiden flight.

Surayev, who will be leaving two young daughters behind on earth, gave no hint of pre-flight nerves, saying the crew had slept "like children."

When they dock with the ISS, the station's crew will increase to nine before Laliberte returns to Earth on October 11 with Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and Michael Barratt of the United States.

Laliberte has not disclosed how much he paid for the trip, although the last space tourist, US software pioneer Charles Simonyi, paid 35 million dollars (28 million euros) for the privilege.

Laliberte began his rise to become the world's 261st richest man, with a personal fortune valued at 2.5 billion dollars according to Forbes magazine, as a ragtag street performer in his native Quebec.

The Cirque du Soleil, which he founded in 1984, fuses bold acrobatics with haunting music and has been seen by more than 80 million visitors under roving big tops or specially-built facilities. Nineteen shows are currently touring.

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