Recommended Free Tools
While training in Russia for a proposed 2002 flight to the International Space Station, Lance Bass says he heard stories about Yuri Gagarin and earlier cosmonauts from people who had worked with them. The “fascinating” part was not a single secret or revelation: it was being close to people who carried the history of the Soviet space program. Bass later connected that interest to Sergei Krikalev, the cosmonaut whose time in orbit spanned the collapse of the Soviet Union.
What did Lance Bass hear during cosmonaut training?
Bass recalled that people at the training base told him stories about Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, and cosmonauts from the program’s earlier years. In a BBC Sky at Night Magazine interview, he said: “So a lot of my professors, everyone living on the base, they would tell stories of Yuri Gagarin.”
Those people were not just instructors in spacecraft systems. Bass remembered learning from staff covering subjects from astrophysics to life aboard the International Space Station, as well as people involved in food and spacesuit preparation. He said some had worked with cosmonauts from Gagarin’s era. The interview does not identify a particular story or disclose a specific secret; what it conveys is Bass’s sense of encountering space history through people who had lived and worked alongside its participants.
Why was an American pop star training in Russia?
Bass says his interest in space began in childhood, before his career with NSYNC. A proposed Russian mission gave him a chance to pursue that long-standing ambition. He trained for a possible seat on a Soyuz spacecraft bound for the ISS, learning about its systems and preparing for the demands of a spaceflight.
#1 Best Overall
Contemporary accounts document training in both Russia’s Star City and Houston. In August 2002, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne noted Bass’s presence at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where De Winne was preparing for work on the station’s US segment. At that point, Bass might take the third seat on Soyuz TMA-1; the possibility was not confirmation that he had been formally assigned or certified as flight-ready. ABC News also reported that Bass was in Houston for briefings on ISS safety systems.
Bass described arriving at Star City as feeling like he had stepped into another era: “I always tell people when I got to Star City, I walked in and it felt like I walked into like 1968.” It was there, in the setting and through the people around him, that the Soviet program’s past became part of his training experience.
Rank #2
- Book - space atlas, second edition: mapping the universe and beyond
- Language: english
- Binding: hardcover
How Sergei Krikalev connected Bass to Soviet history
Bass’s interest later turned to Sergei Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut who was aboard the Mir space station when the Soviet Union collapsed. In the BBC interview, Bass wondered what it meant to leave Earth as a Soviet citizen and return to a country transformed and in disarray. He subsequently presented or joined a podcast project called The Last Soviet, focused on Krikalev’s story.
Bass described Krikalev’s time in space as 313 days in that interview. That figure is Bass’s retrospective description; the sources cited here do not independently verify the mission-duration number. The larger historical point he emphasized was the striking change in political reality between Krikalev’s departure and return.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsWhy didn’t Bass go to space?
The proposed mission fell through because the television producers sponsoring Bass did not raise the fare. NASA’s chronology records an estimated cost of US$20 million and gives 28 October 2002 as the planned Soyuz departure date. On 4 September 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported the Russian Space Agency’s view that the mission was over after sponsors failed to deliver the money. A spokesman, Sergei A. Gorbunov, put it simply: “It’s over.”
NASA’s later chronology says Bass was 23 at the time and would have been the youngest person to travel in space and the third space tourist if the flight had happened. Both distinctions are counterfactual: Bass did not fly on the mission. The documented cancellation reason was the failure to raise the fare, not a reported finding about his personal fitness or a decision by NASA.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Rank #4
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
