spacetoday.net: Bass starts negotiations, training for tourist flight

Posted: Wed, Jul 10, 2002, 9:05 AM ET (1305 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

Pop star Lance Bass started negotiations with the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos this week for a space tourist flight to the International Space Station while beginning preliminary training. Rosaviakosmos officials confirmed that negotiations with Bass were underway, but provided few other details about the talks. Bass, a member of the band *NSYNC, completed medical tests in May and was certified by Russian doctors as physically fit enough to fly in space, but a key sticking point has been the $20 million price tag for the flight. Bass is working to line up a deal with a television network who would pay for the flight in exchange for producing a series about Bass's trip, but it is unknown if any deal has been reached. With the next Soyuz taxi flight scheduled for late October, less than four months away, it is unlikely that Bass would be able to participate on that flight. However, a spokesman for MirCorp, the company that is assisting Bass in his space tourist efforts, said that he could still fly on that mission "if everything goes quickly and smoothly."