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Date Posted: 21:55:29 08/27/02 Tue
Author: A
Subject: NASA Okays Bass - Article
In reply to: A 's message, "Lance stuff" on 22:39:40 08/25/02 Sun

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug. 26 � Maybe being back on home ground is lucky for Lance Bass. The �N Sync singer, currently training at Johnson Space Center in Houston, on Tuesday finally got the news he�d been waiting for: A panel representing NASA and other space agencies have signed off on his trip to the space station. �They�ve agreed that Mr. Bass meets the criteria and is suitable as a crew member,� said NASA spokeswoman Debra Rahn.
All that remains is for the financial deal between the �N Sync star�s backers and the Russian space program to be finalized. Both sides have been haggling for months.
Even before the deal was finalized, the Russian Space Agency last month submitted Bass� name for one of three seats on a rocket scheduled to blast off from Kazakhstan on Oct. 28. After weeks of telephone conferences to discuss his background and qualifications, the panel agreed he could go.
The panel�s recommendation has been forwarded to a board of high-ranking space agency officials who will review Bass� candidacy and issue a final ruling in September, Rahn said.
Bass is in Houston for a week of training at NASA�s Johnson Space Center, a requirement for flights to the space station. Bass, the two professional astronauts who will be his crewmates if the contract is finalized and a backup crew all flew in from Russia over the weekend.
Johnson�s public affairs office fielded numerous calls about Bass� presence, but it was not excessive and no fans were reported outside the center gates, spokesman John Ira Petty told The Associated Press on Monday.
Without the required week of space station training at Johnson, Bass would have been grounded, no matter what. So as a favor to the Russians, NASA agreed to put him through safety briefings and simulator classes so he would be ready to take off if his contract is signed.
�Space flight can be very unforgiving if there�s a mistake that�s made, and those are the kinds of things that we�ll make sure that all three crew members are trained for,� said flight director John Curry. �Make sure that they know the hazards, what valves not to touch, dangers that you can do to your eyes if you�re looking out the window.�
Russian officials signaled Friday that they expected to see a key payment from the singer�s backers before Bass returns to Russia in early September. Sources on the other side of the negotiations indicated that they were making progress.
�I think everything�s going to be cool,� said TV producer David Krieff, president of Destiny Productions.
The payment would represent a significant installment on the estimated $20 million price of the launch and training � and it�s been the subject of wrangling between the Russians and Bass� backers for weeks.
The backers include Los Angeles-based Destiny Productions, Amsterdam-based MirCorp and the William Morris Agency. The project�s financial plan calls for Bass� fare to be paid by corporate sponsors, including RadioShack and reportedly Procter & Gamble and a soft-drink company as well.
If the �Celebrity Mission� goes forward, Bass� training and his flight to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule in late October would become the subject of an eight-part TV series, complete with a �welcome home� post-mission concert. Corporate logos would be emblazoned on Bass� spacesuit and featured in video coverage of the mission.
Bass has trained for the mission at Russia�s Star City cosmonaut complex for a month and a half. Reports filtering back from Star City indicated that the 23-year-old platinum-selling singer has worked hard and has met the standards for space passengers.
The Russian space agency says it needs the money from Bass� backers to foot its own bills and service its Soyuz space fleet � and for that reason it has already bent many of the rules for space passenger flights. For example, it submitted Bass� name as a potential crew member weeks after an April-May deadline had passed, and the schedule calls for Bass to spend less time than prescribed in cosmonaut training.
If Bass� bid is successful, he would be the third fare-paying passenger to blast into space aboard a Russian craft, following in the footsteps of California millionaire Dennis Tito and South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth.
Shuttleworth, like Bass, put in his obligatory week at Johnson. But Tito was barred from taking part in NASA training with his Russian crew in March 2001. Caught off guard by the advent of space tourism, NASA insisted on an extra month or two of training for Tito, a former rocket scientist, and asked him to wait until later in the year. He flew to the space station anyway, in April 2001.
Bass would wrest the title of youngest person in space from Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov, who blasted off in 1961 at age 25. Bass has said the flight would fulfill a lifelong dream, nurtured by a stint in space camp when he was 12.

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