Boy band member LanceBass and a former NASA official are currently in Moscow vying for a chance toclaim the next seat on a Russian spacecraft, a Russian official said.

Dmitry Malashenkov,spokesman for Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems, said that 'N Sync bandmember Bass and former NASA employee Lori Garver were undergoing medical testsat the center to evaluate their fitness for space travel.

The tests includespending time in a pressurized chamber and a centrifuge test to determine howtheir bodies would respond to the spacecraft's liftoff.

The results will beforwarded to a state commission, which will then deliver a final report on bothcandidates' fitness, Malashenkov said Tuesday.

Russia's space agency continued to express reservations,however, that a space tourist would be ready in time for October's blastoff tothe international space station primarily because of the complicated contractnegotiations.

But the agency willhold one seat in the three-person Soyuz spacecraft open alongside Russianflight commander Sergei Zaletin and European Space Agency astronaut FrankDeWinne of Belgium for as long as possible, space agency officials said,according to Interfax news agency.

A Russian cosmonautwill start training for the mission when it becomes clear that no space touristwill join the trip.

The world's secondspace tourist, South African Internet mogul Mark Shuttleworth, returned toEarth earlier this month, saying it was the best thing he'd ever done. Like theworld's first space tourist, Dennis Tito, he paid $20 million for the ride.

But in a bid to beseen as more than a tourist, Shuttleworth put in eight months of preparation atRussia's Star City cosmonaut training center, spent one week at NASA's JohnsonSpace Center in Houston and conducted a series of experiments from space.

Bass has reportedlysecured the support of the a Los Angeles TV production company, DestinyProductions, to help fund his bid, and film the training and trip for a TVspecial.

Garver was NASA'sassociate administrator for policy planning and is now vice president of adefense and space consulting firm in Washington.