Bass Takes One More Step to Space Trip

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/23/2002 at 01:15 PM EDT

'N Sync singer Lance Bass "has signed a preliminary contract" and "is officially a candidate" for a Russian mission to the International Space Station this October, a spokesman for Russia's Rosaviakosmos told Reuters from Moscow on Tuesday. "Whether he actually flies or not is a question that will be decided in the near future," the Russian representative added. America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which partners with the Russians on the space station project, late last week expressed concerns that the musician, 23, despite his lifelong dreams of becoming an astronaut, may lack the proper education, endurance and fluency in Russian to undertake such a journey. RASA (as the Russian space agency is known) revealed, however, that it could use the money that backers of Bass's trip would be prepared to pay. (Previous space visitors, U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito and South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, each shelled out a reported $20 million to accompany cosmonauts on their missions.) "Within a week he will begin training, and he should be able to cover enough ground," a spokesman for Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan said of Bass, noting that the as part of his training he would surely pick up a few "necessary words" in Russian. How do you say "good luck" in Russian?