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By MARCIA DUNN
.c The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - NASA welcomed its first celebrity space tourist on Monday: 'N Sync singer Lance Bass, who hopes to clinch a deal with the Russians soon and fly to the international space station in two months.

The 23-year-old boy-band member began a full week of training at Johnson Space Center in Houston along with the rest of his crew, a Russian and a Belgian. All three flew in from Moscow over the weekend after training at the cosmonaut base in Star City, Russia.

Johnson's public affairs office fielded numerous calls about Bass' presence, but it was not excessive and no groupies were reported outside the center gates, said spokesman John Ira Petty.

NASA agreed to teach Bass about the basics of space flight - and the particulars of the U.S. side of the space station - even though his trip is still up in the air because of contract issues with the Russians.

The three men are supposed to blast off from Kazakhstan on Oct. 28 in a Russian Soyuz capsule that will remain at the space station and serve as a fresh lifeboat. But Bass has yet to come to financial terms with the Russian Space Agency despite months of wrangling, and he's yet to be endorsed by a panel of space station representatives.

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.

He would be the youngest person ever in space.

``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.''

Bass is only the second space tourist to train at NASA.

South African Internet tycoon Mark Shuttleworth put in his obligatory week at Johnson in January and spent a quiet week at the space station three months later. But the first paying space tourist, California businessman Dennis 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.

Both Tito and Shuttleworth paid out of their own pockets for the one- to 1 1/2-week cruise. Russia's asking price is $20 million.

Bass is rounding up corporate sponsors, and that's why his negotiations with the Russians are dragging. Almost every week, Russian space officials have insisted that the check is due by the end of the week.

Because of the uncertainty over his flight, Bass spent less time training in Russia than his predecessors did. But NASA officials say a few months of training are enough for him to get by.

On the Net:

NASA: spaceflight.nasa.gov


 
08/26/02 13:51 EDT
   Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.