Teen idol Bass returns to USto continue space training in Texas
Teen IdolLance Bass
MOSCOW, (AFP) - Pop idol Lance Bass of theboy band 'N Sync left Russia on Saturday to continue trainingfor his hoped-for space flight at the Johnson Space Centre inTexas, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Bass' relations with the Russian Space Agencyhave been going through a rocky patch because his sponsors havebeen late in paying his expenses.
Russian officials have already warned hemay be dropped from the next Russian mission to the InternationalSpace Station unless his dues are cleared. A final decision isto be taken next week, they said.
Bass paid for his own ticket back to theUnited States and was not officially travelling with "official"cosmonauts Sergei Zalyotin of Russia and Frank de Winne of Belgium.
The 23-year-old singer, who finished histraining in Russia on Friday, is pencilled in for a 10-day tripin which he would become the youngest person to go into orbitand the first entertainer to circle the Earth.
Two previous space "tourists"have already flown to the ISS aboard Russian space craft. DennisTito, a former NASA engineer, flew in April last year, while SouthAfrica's Mark Shuttleworth made the same trip exactly a year later.
Both paid the standard fare of 20 milliondollars (20.6 million euros).