*NSYNC News

(8/22/02, 3 p.m. ET) -- Prospective space tourist and *NSYNC singer Lance Bass took part in a zero-gravity training flight with space tourism company Space Adventures on Thursday (August 22). During the one-hour parabolic training flight, Bass and several other of the company's clients floated weightlessly for 30-second intervals inside the cabin of a Russian Ilyushin-76.

Space Adventures spokesperson Tereza Predescu told LAUNCH that the pop singer's first zero-gravity experience went very well. "Lance was really great. He was a guest on Space Adventures Zero-Gravity Flight earlier this morning in Star City, Russia. He was very excited about the flight. This was his first zero-gravity experience. He had a great time," she said. "He did really well. He didn't get sick, and from what I understand he really enjoyed the experience."

The trip was part of the space flight training and pre-qualification Bass is required to complete in order for the Russian Space Agency to grant him certification for an orbital space flight on a Soyuz rocket.

Predescu explained that the maneuver that Bass experienced in the plane usually requires a block of airspace from about 25,000 to about 35,000 feet. "Basically the plane free falls. What happens is it goes up in parabolas, and at the top of the parabola the engines are reversed, and that's when people inside the cabin freefall for a period of about 30 seconds. And then the plane dives back down and pulls back up into the next parabola, and that's how it simulates zero-gravity inside the cabin," she said.

Inside sources told LAUNCH that an official announcement can be expected as early as Friday (August 23) confirming that funding issues for the trip have been resolved, and Bass's $20 million mission to the International Space Station will go on as planned. The Russian Space Agency imposed the August 23 deadline on the singer to come up with the money in order for him to be eligible to participate the October 22 launch. At 23 years old, Bass will be the youngest person--and the first pop singer--to travel into space.

Space Adventures has previously provided space tourists Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttlewoth with the opportunity to fly to the International Space Station. For more information about Space Adventures, visit spaceadventures.com.

-- Jason Gelman, New York

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