SPACE.com -- MirCorp Affirms Lance Bass Will Fly, Denies Russian Media Report

Seated at a simulated ISS workstation, potential Soyuz 5 crewmember Lance Bass undergoes training at the Johnson Space Center for a planned October 2002 spaceflight. Behind Bass are Ginger Kerrick of JSC's International Training group and Herve Stevenin of the European Space Agency.

The Soyuz 5 taxi crew from left: Lance Bass, Sergei Zalyotin and Frank De Winne.

Carolynn Conley gives HAM radio instructions to potential Soyuz 5 crewmember Lance Bass during an August training visit to the Johnson Space Center.

Lance Bass Says He's Flying For Sure

Pop Star Lance Bass 'N Fusing NASA

Lance Bass Flight Moves Closer To Go-Ahead

NASA To Welcome Lance Bass, Though Deal With Russia Still Uncertain


	MirCorp Affirms Lance Bass Will Fly, Denies Russian Media Report By Simon Saradzhyan Special to SPACE.com posted: 12:45 pm ET 30 August 2002

Lance Bass' team is taking "longer than we have thought" to transfer money for the planned trip of this U

MOSCOW -- Lance Bass' team is taking "longer than we have thought" to transfer money for the planned trip of this U.S. pop star to the International Space Station, MirCorp president Jeffrey Manber told SPACE.com Friday.

Manber denied a Russian news report that said Bass' space flight may fail to materialize. He insisted that he still believes the singer's corporate sponsors will deliver the money that they were scheduled to transfer weeks ago in accordance with the contract between the U.S. team and the Russian Aviation and Space Station (Rosaviakosmos).

"We hope we can solve it next week," Manber said in a telephone interview from Northern Virginia when asked when he thinks the money would be transferred.

Manber, who said his company is helping the Russian side in the negotiations with Bass and his managers, blamed the delay on the paperwork. "It takes weeks and months to complete the paperwork" after a corporate sponsor declares its preparedness to pay for the trip. Manber would not name the sponsors, but said it includes a large soft drink company.

The MirCorp chief praised the Russian side, including Rosaviakosmos, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and Rocket Space Corporation Energia, for not ejecting Bass from the three-strong crew despite his sponsors' failure to meet the scheduled payment deadlines. "The Russians are being very patient," he said.

Manber said he believed that Bass' managers have revealed the identity of the large sponsor backing the pop singer's flight bid in closed-door negotiations with Rosaviakosmos. This helped convince the Russian side to keep the singer in the crew. He also said that the fact that the Russian side's other option is to send cargo instead of Bass was also factored in.

A Russian space industry source, who is close to the team of Russian negotiators, told SPACE.com last Friday that the Russian negotiating team might be willing to wait for more than one week before deciding whether to have Bass ejected from the crew. "We have time to wait and see as there is no other pressing option," the source said. The source said a cargo container would be launched instead of Bass if the singer fails to honor the contract.

Calls to Rosaviakosmos officials went unanswered Friday evening.