Part of the 21st full-time crew of the International Space Station lifts off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-16. Maksim Surayev and Jeffrey Williams take up residence on the ISS for 168 days, becoming part of the Expedition 21 crew. Joining them for the flight to the ISS is Canadian space tourist and Cirque de Soleil CEO Guy Laliberté, who visits the station for ten days before returning to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-14 with members of the Expedition 19/20 crew. As with other space tourists before him, he pays for his own Soyuz seat and space training, but the impending retirement of the space shuttle fleet puts an end to Soyuz space tourism for several years after this flight.
