Posted: Sat, Jun 29, 2002, 12:43 PM ET (1643 GMT)
Pop star Lance Bass has reportedly reached a deal with a TV network that will provide him with a down payment for a future flight on a Soyuz as a space tourist, MSNBC reported Friday night. The report, in the "Cosmic Log" weblog by MSNBC science reporter Alan Boyle, said that an unidentified network had agreed to pay between $100,000 and $1 million that would serve as a down payment for the estimated $20 million fee required for Bass to fly as a tourist on a Soyuz taxi mission to ISS. David Krieff, the TV producer working to arrange the deal, told MSNBC that negotiations were in their "final stages", but such claims have been made repeatedly over the last several weeks. Even if a deal is reached, many observers feel it is unlikely Bass would be able to fly on the October Soyuz taxi flight, since its launch is less than four months away and a minimum of six months of preflight training has traditionally been required. However, the report said that problems with the shuttle could force the October launch to be rescheduled, although any delay in the Soyuz launch would mean that the Soyuz docked to ISS would remain in orbit beyond 180 days, the estimated on-orbit lifetime of the spacecraft that serves as a lifeboat for the station's crew.

Related Links:

•  MSNBC "Cosmic Log" report