BAIKONUR, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - A circus owner along with a Russian and U.S. astronaut were bathed in alcohol before putting on their spacesuits prior to lift off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, a RIA Novosti correspondent said.

"Alcohol was rubbed over us. I usually drink it, and here it was all over," Russia's Maxim Surayev, who was the first to undergo the procedure, joked.

Flight engineer Surayev, U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams, and space tourist Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte, founder of the Cirque du Soleil, got the final go ahead on Tuesday to blast off for the International Space Station.

The Russian astronaut praised the crew's readiness for the launch.

"Spirits are high, and we slept like children," he said.

Anatoly Perminov, the head of Russia's Space Agency, and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden wished the crew good luck.

"We are proud of this crew and wish them success," Perminov said.

Russia's Soyuz-FG carrier rocket bearing the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft is due for lift off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 11:14 a.m. Moscow time (07:14 GMT).