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By Peter Graff

 
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Teen heart-throb Lance Bass of the U.S. boy-band N'SYNC arrived in Moscow Friday hoping to fulfill his dream of becoming the first entertainer in space.

After an overnight flight, Bass was whisked straight from the airport to a medical institute outside Moscow for the first of a battery of tests set to last the weekend.

When he finally arrived at his hotel and hauled his suitcase out of a blue van, the jet-lag wasn't enough to dampen the 22-year-old's excitement. What was he here for?

"I'm doing some testing," he said with a grin, then adding bashfully, as if he wasn't quite sure it was OK to let the news out, "for the Russian space agency."

You want to fly to space?

"Hopefully, some day."

Why?

"'Cause its been my life-long dream. I've always wanted to do it and I want to see if I can do it."

You scared?

He smiles. "Nah, never."

It was Bass's first time in Russia, which was "very cool. It's everything I imagined it to be."

Bass hopes to visit the International Space Station, following in the footsteps of space tourist Dennis Tito, who paid a reported $20 million for a ticket there on a Russian rocket last year.

Moscow plans to send a South African Internet millionaire up to the station as the second space tourist next month, but Bass would be the first pop star to turn amateur astronaut.

Russian space officials said Bass has yet to book his seat.

"We have received no information from him," Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos spokesman Sergei Gorbunov said. "Of course, there is a possibility. There is always a possibility. But he has taken no official steps to arrange the trip."

Bass said he was getting the tests done first.

"That's what I'm here for, just to test to see if my body can handle space. If I get the ok, I guess I'll go up in November."

Friday's tests were "the normal physical, you know. Checking the heart out, the eyes, the ears. I'm all wired up."

So what do Chris, Joey, Justin and J.C. -- the other members of the quintet -- think of his plans?

"Ha ha. They love it. They're all saying they'd never do anything like that. But I guess there's something in me. I just want to do it so bad."

13:08 03-22-02

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