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Lance Bass' Soyuz Training Suspended Over Money Issues
By Natasha Yefimova
Space News Moscow Correspondent
posted: 11:04 am ET
15 August 2002
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Cosmonaut-want-to-be Lance Bass has been benched Cosmonaut-wannabe Lance Bass has been benched. Russian Space Agency officials indignant that Bass' U.S. sponsors have not made a down payment outlined in their contact have indefinitely sidelined the 23-year-old pop star. "Training is suspended. He's sitting in the hotel," Rosaviakosmos spokesman Konstantin Kreidenko said in a telephone Thursday. Kreidenko said RSA officials are debating how to proceed and the decision was due "in the near future." He added that a non-disclosure law in the contract covers all details pertaining to the cost of the deal. Bass is hitting the books on Russian space systems and language, but Russian space officials won't allow him to do any active training on their simulators until they receive payment for his desired spaceflight in October, sources told SPACE.com. While the volleys continue to be fired back and forth between Hollywood and Moscow over details of paying the reported $20 million for Bass' ride on the Soyuz taxi flight, Bass reportedly remains in Star City near Moscow undergoing what one space official familiar with the situation called "passive training." Kreidenko also said that the Soyuz flight on which Bass had hoped to get his seat to space was still set for Oct. 22. However, during a recent space station briefing, NASA officials said they have been told the Soyuz taxi flight will be launched Oct. 28, a week later due mostly to delays in launching the next Progress freighter in September. As a result of the slips, shuttle Endeavour's next mission was being delayed from Nov. 2 to some time after Nov. 7, the day the Soyuz taxi mission is to depart the outpost and return to Earth. Russia's ISS partners from the European Space Agency had not made any formal requests to send up their own astronaut or cargo in the event the Bass deal falls through, Kreidenko said. Meanwhile, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, planning documents show the three prime crew of the Soyuz taxi flight -- which is likely to include Bass -- are due in Texas for training August 26 to 30. The Soyuz prime and backup commanders are to stay through the Labor Day weekend for a few additional days of science training that next week. Officially, Bass is not yet a member of the Soyuz crew, but sources within the International Space Station program tell SPACE.com they expect that the payment details will be worked out and that it's very likely Bass will make his spaceflight in October barring any unforeseen last-minute issues.
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