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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bass Expected to Announce Space Tourism Verdict Today

Aired May 31, 2002 - 06:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We're about to find out if *NSYNC's Lance Bass can harmonize in space.

CNN's Matthew Chance is live in Moscow on Bass's effort to become the next space tourist -- so how did he do?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol.

Well, I don't know whether "space tourist" is the right label we should be pinning to Lance Bass. Certainly, he is a commercial passenger. But if his trip goes ahead -- and that hasn't been confirmed yet by any stretch of the imagination -- if it does, it will be a trip that has corporate sponsorship. RadioShack Corporation is aiming to at least partially fund this trip of the pop star, Lance Bass, into outside of the earth's atmosphere, into the international space station.

He's said by RadioShack officials to be experimenting and testing out high-tech RadioShack equipment to demonstrate the range of that equipment. He's also being sponsored by an L.A.-based production firm called Destiny Productions, who are planning a series of TV specials. They can get the training that Lance Bass has been going through, and the trip itself.

Here's what Lance Bass had to say about the issue.

Oh, we don't have that sound byte now. OK, so what he has been saying is that he's very excited. He said he's had a dream, like all these other paying passengers that have been going into space -- Dennis Tito and the South African, Mark Shuttleworth, as well -- had a dream since boyhood of going into space. It looks like that potentially that dream could become a reality for Lance Bass.

As I say, it's not been confirmed yet. He has apparently been given preliminary approval by the Moscow Institute for Biomedical Problems, which carries out the original biomedical tests to make sure he's fit and healthy to go into space. That preliminary thumbs-up has been given. It's still yet to be confirmed, though.

Lance Bass has been talking about the issue. I think we've got some sound now of him talking to another candidate to be a space paying passenger, a space tourist, Lori Garver, an "astro mom," as she calls herself; another American who also hopes to go into space. Here's what they were talking about during the training session over the last few days here in Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANCE BASS, *NSYNC MEMBER: It was crazy.

LORI GARVER, FORMER NASA EMPLOYEE: What did you say, it definitely felt like you knew how it was going to feel like when you...

BASS: Oh, you definitely know exactly what it's going to feel like reentering the earth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, cool.

BASS: You know you see the pictures of the capsule coming in, that's exactly what it's going to feel like. Like you just feel everything melting around you. Just like (ph), "after the four, the eight is exactly the same. You don't feel a difference."

I'm like, "Yes, right."

GARVER: He did?

BASS: Yes. I think he was just kidding, though.

GARVER: She said for four you really don't need to do the muscle stuff.

BASS: Yes.

GARVER: They just do it to have you practice. And for 30 seconds, I'm sure you could survive it anyway.

BASS: I know -- for sure.

GARVER: I mean, you cannot breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: Well the eight figure that Lori Garver is talking about there is the eight times the normal force of gravity, the conditions in which -- the G force conditions in which you're being simulated in this training. This is the kind of physical strains that are going to be placed on any potential traveler to space as they launch off.

It's also very physically and psychologically demanding on the way back as well. Remember that when the Soyuz space capsule -- the Soyuz rocket capsule descends back down to earth and attempts to reenter the earth's atmosphere, it is traveling at speeds of up to 15,000 miles an hour before it's eventually slowed as it enters the earth's atmosphere. And it's heated up to extraordinarily high temperatures.

So it is a very dangerous and very physically demanding exercise that Lance Bass plans to undertake. Back to you, Carol. COSTELLO: And Matthew, doesn't he have to get some medical tests? Did he undergo those this morning and that's the holdup here on whether he will go into space?

CHANCE: Well, I mean, he's been undergoing those medical tests for some time now. As I mentioned, he's got the preliminary approval by the Moscow Institute for Biomedical Problems, which is the official title of the organization, the government body, that conducts these experiments on people to make sure they're physically up to it, and, indeed, psychologically up to the very intense pressures that are placed on cosmonauts and people who are willing to pay money to go into space.

He's been given the preliminary approval. The final approval we're expected to be given within a few hours from now here in Moscow. After that, there's going to be a press conference in which Lance Bass is expected -- if all goes according to plan and all goes in his favor -- is expected to announce his intention officially to approach the Russian space agency to start the difficult, prolonged negotiations to get a seat on that Soyuz rocket up to the international space station.

The rocket is planned to be launching in about October of this year. So there's not many months that he has to prepare. It could still not happen, but Lance Bass certainly hopes it will -- back to you, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Thank you, Matthew Chance, reporting live for us.

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