Pop star’s space dream fails to take off

’N SYNC singer Lance Bass has been asked to leave Russia’s cosmonaut training programme and will not be the world’s third space tourist, a Russian space official said yesterday.

Sergei Gorbunov, spokesman for the Russian Space Agency, said the decision to end negotiations with Bass was made in connection with “crude violations” of his contract.

Gorbunov said Bass, who had hoped to fly to the International Space Station on board a Russian Soyuz rocket on October 28, would be leaving Russia’s Star City.