Bass Wants to Give Space Another Shot

By Stephen M. Silverman

Tuesday April 29, 2003 01:00 AM EDT

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February's Columbia Space Shuttle disaster has not deterred rocket fan Lance Bass from his dream of blasting off one day.

In fact, he definitely still plans to go into space -- even after his plans were embarrassingly scuttled last year when the 'N Sync-er failed to come up with the necessary $20 million to take the trip.

"Well, that'll come," he said of the money. "I mean somebody's going to want to do a documentary about it, so we'll see. We'll put that all together in the next couple of years," Bass tells AP Radio.

Bass had been dismissed by the Russian Space Agency and NASA last Sept. 3 after failing to come up with the necessary funds to join an Oct. 28 space mission. Even so, Bass went to the Star City training center outside of Moscow after the plug was pulled on his trip.

"He just doesn't want to interrupt the (training) program," Yuri Nikiforov, general director of Atlas Airspace, told AP at the time.

Bass, 23, had begun his space preparations in July with the hope that corporate sponsors, interested in financing a TV documentary on his voyage, would cough up the necessary cash. But he ended up getting tossed when the Russians demanded payment and, it appeared, all they were getting were further promises.

By late August, Russian space agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov had acknowledged that even though Bass might return for training, it would not be for the October flight -- or any other space mission.

Meanwhile, with his feet on the ground, Bass is appearing this week on "Hollywood Squares" and as one of the judges on NBC's "America's Most Talented Kid."