NSync star to sing in space

Lance Bass has promised to sing aboard the international space station when he visits this autumn.

But don't expect any cosmic concerts or recordings. Bass says it's all for education's sake.

The NSync star told reporters the point of his space adventure is to inspire kids to become astronauts, scientists, or anything else no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible.

According to Bass, it's been an amazing week at Nasa with an amazing space crew and an amazing international mission. "It's going to be amazing," he added.

Bass and his Russian and Belgian crewmates, both professional spacemen, took time out of their training this week at Johnson Space Center in Houston to meet a jammed roomful of reporters and photographers. All three were wearing matching navy golf shirts with the words "Soyuz 5 Crew."

Almost all the questions were directed at Bass, whose mother and all four grandparents watched proudly from the back row.

Fellow band member JC Chasez tagged along during Wednesday's work sessions but had to leave on Thursday for the MTV Video Music Awards in New York.

Bass said he will be nervous when he rockets away from Kazakhstan on October 28. But he insisted he won't be scared.

Bass said he has learned all the necessary emergency procedures and will not be a hindrance. His commander, Sergei Zalyotin, admitted he was "a little skeptical" about Bass at first, but has since come around because of all his training.

Corporate sponsors are still being lined up for a seven-part TV series that would begin in September and lead up to launch day.

Bass said he plans to pull out the guitar on the space station and perhaps do some jamming. But there will be no concerts or record-cutting. "It's not about that," he said.

"The education that I'm going to be doing is more like physics studies on video, just being able to talk live with people down in their schools on the ham radio. Just letting them know what it's like to experience, let them see what it's like to be in zero-gravity, to know what it's like to train to become a cosmonaut-astronaut."