CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has prepared a package of last-minute training for *NSYNC's Lance Bass should the Russian Space Agency officially approve the pop star's desire to fly in space this October, program managers said Thursday.
"We have prepared for a training program should he get signed and it's all agreed that he would go fly," said Diane Murphy, NASA's manager for the Expedition Five increment at the International Space Station. "We expect all that to kind of come together here very shortly."
If approved, Bass and his fellow Soyuz crewmates, Russias Sergei Zalyotin and Belgiums Frank De Winne, would travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in the next few weeks for about two weeks of extensive training on ISS systems and safety procedures.
"Spaceflight can be very unforgiving if there is a mistake that's made," said ISS flight director John Curry. He noted the Soyuz crew need to learn about such things as which valves to avoid touching or when not to look out certain windows so they don't damage their eyes.
"Those are the kinds of things that we'll make sure all three crew members are trained for, Lance being one of them if he winds up flying," Curry said.
Negotiations between Bass' representatives and the Russian Space Agency reportedly continue. The amount of money to be paid to the Russians and the timing of those payments appears to be the central issue. There has yet to be a formal announcement naming Bass to the Soyuz taxi crew.
"We have heard by the grapevine that they have made some progress with getting him assigned, but we have not gotten that official yet," Murphy said.
What is official is a new launch date for the Soyuz flight: Oct. 28, six days later than previously planned.
The delay has more to do with a 10-day bump in the next unmanned Progress freighter launch than anything to do with Bass -- although the extra time will allow for additional training. The next Progress is to fly atop a Soyuz booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 20.
Those delays in turn will force shuttle Endeavour to remain on the ground about a week longer. The shuttle cannot launch to the space station while a Soyuz taxi mission is docked there because too many people would be on board the outpost at the same time.
Murphy said that based on this latest schedule the Soyuz is to undock on Nov. 7 but they're not sure yet when Endeavour could fly.
"We are assessing that right now," she said. "We are taking this plan for the Soyuz and seeing how early we could launch a shuttle right behind it."
Bass' potential presence on this Soyuz taxi flight -- required every six months to deliver a fresh lifeboat to the ISS -- already has sparked increased interest in the space program from at least one nine-year-old girl: Curry's daughter.
"She generally doesn't ask me anything about the space program," said Curry, who recently returned from Moscow. "On my way to the plane she asked me if I could get Lance Bass' autograph. So I guess that tells me something right there."
By coincidence, he said, Curry was in Russia at the same time as Bass and was able to get an autograph for his daughter.
"She was pretty excited," he said.
"Obviously nine-year-olds, teenagers -- those kind of people are going to be excited by such a thing. Eventually we're going to get the point where average citizens get to fly in space on a regular basis, and that's ultimately a good thing. My opinion."
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