The Russian Aerospace Agency said earlier this week that it hadn't yet received commercial proposals from Bass or his representatives and warned that there is little chance he can complete the necessary training in time for the next Soyuz rocket launch in October.

Bass did not comment on financial details of his bid. The world's second space tourist, South African Mark Shuttleworth, returned to Earth earlier this month after a weeklong trip that cost him dlrs 20 million _ the same sum the world's first space tourist, Dennis Tito, paid for a ride last year.

Bass said Friday he still hopes to go to space in the fall. He said the October flight would ideally suit his band's busy schedule, and added that other band members were ``very supportive'' of his adventure.

Bass said he and another would-be space tourist, former NASA official Lori Garver, had spent weeks passing grueling tests to qualify for the mission with 48 doctors certifying their fitness at Russia's premier space medicine center, the Institute for Medical and Biological Problems.

Bass was found to have an irregular heartbeat, and although it was not necessarily a hindrance to a space mission, he had it corrected by a medical procedure back in the United States.

Bass said he had been dreaming about going to space since childhood and voiced hope that his mission would serve educational purposes through a documentary he would make in space.

``We're doing final negotiations right now with a major network to air this,'' he said. ``It makes me feel like a great spokesperson for these space programs.''

Bass said he loved Russia and was looking forward to studying Russian _ a necessary condition for landing a seat on a Soyuz. ``It's going to be very difficult, but something I'm looking forward to,'' he said.

Fort Worth, Texas-based RadioShack Corporation financed Bass' medical screening and also provided support to Garver, who hopes to make her own space flight next April.

``I'm more patient,'' Garver joked, saying she would be training alongside Bass as his back-up at the Russian Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow while working to gather financial support for her own mission.

Bass hailed Garver as a great expert and excellent companion. ``She's so brilliant and so dedicated to this project ... she is like a human encyclopedia when it comes to space,'' he said.

Both Bass and Garver are conducting discussions with additional sponsors and television networks to expand their financial support beyond RadioShack.

Jeffrey Manber, President of the Amsterdam-based MirCorp company which is helping Bass and Garver try to secure their seats on Russian spacecraft, said he was conducting intensive talks with Russian space officials.

The Interfax news agency quoted Russian Aerospace Agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov as saying Friday that Bass should take ``extremely energetic measures'' to quickly wrap up commercial talks and start training. Gorbunov voiced doubts that the singer would manage to secure a seat on October's flight in the little time left.