Tuesday's news that the 23-year-old is back in training for space travel comes after months of to-ing and fro-ing, and there will be more to follow.

Bass will not yet be following in the footsteps of the two previous space tourists, Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth - but he will be hoping to at some point in the future.

Bass is realising a boyhood dream

Mr Shuttleworth, a South African internet entrepreneur said he had come back from space with a "thick skin" after the wave of hostility he had received prior to departing.

Many were angry anyone could spend $20m on indulging a fantasy, especially from a country where poverty, malnutrition and disease are rife.

Mr Tito had to defend himself against Nasa criticism that he was impeding the work of the professional astronauts on the International Space Station.

But Mr Shuttleworth said he conducted useful anti-gravity experiments on the HIV virus and Mr Tito was at least a former space agency worker.

Mystery sponsors

Unlike the other space tourists, Bass had not planned to fund his mission from a personal fortune.

Instead he relied on Los Angeles television producer David Krieff and the raft of sponsors that were being lined up.

Mr Krieff had also been planning a series about Bass's journey, tentatively titled Celebrity Mission: Lance Bass.

Tito was accused of impeding other astronauts

Mr Krieff had talked of three committed sponsors, saying they included a "huge soft drink" manufacturer and mentioning a conglomerate "like Procter & Gamble".

How Nasa would have felt about being involved in a mission where the Soyuz rocket is emblazoned with a fizzy drink's logo is not known.

What Bass could yet be is a fantastic poster boy for the space agency, and yet another advert for the Russian space establishment's capability to realise rich men's dreams.

Nasa has already publicly relished the opportunity to use Bass to win over young Americans and older voters who have the power to influence how its budget is affected in a sceptical age.

Inevitable rise

Bass is no elaborately-coiffed boy band bimbo. Only a Garth Brooks concert persuaded him to finally give up his plans to pursue his interest in natural sciences, and he has clearly never abandoned his boyhood dreams of being an astronaut.

His childhood is the story of an almost inevitable rise to musical stardom, familiar to his peers in the world of manufactured pop.

Born James Lansten Bass in May 1979 in Laurel, Mississipi, the singer apparently relishes his small town roots in a place where "everyone knows everyone".

Shuttleworth was lambasted by some South Africans

"I was born in a really small town in southern Mississippi where you didn't have to keep your doors locked and you didn't have to worry about murders and things like that."

He was said to have played piano from an early age and started his path to singing stardom with a local choir at the age of 11.

He joined the Mississipi Show Stoppers, another chorus, before joining a choir that toured the US and then being invited to join 'N Sync.

The band has had a string of US number one singles and more than matched this success in the album charts with their 1998 debut selling over 10 million and their third album shifting 2.4 million copies in its first week.

But Bass is still working towards a new type of fame - as a fresh-faced space tourist first and a pop star second.