LOS ANGELES (Launch) - American millionaire Dennis Tito was the first person to buy a ride into space, and now a Russian pop star wants to do the same. Russia's culture minister has written a letter to the head of the country's space program backing a music producer's plan to send up one member of a pop group for the first ever boy-band concert in orbit, the Izvestia newspaper reported. Backers of the pop group Na Na told Izvestia that the band, known for catchy tunes and pretty-boy looks, have already taken a cosmonaut training course. The newspaper also quoted a letter by Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi to space program head Yuri Koptev supporting plans to put a member of the group in space. Na Na producer B.K. Alibasov said that since only one member of the group would be able to go into space, the others would join him in a concert by radio hook-up from Earth.
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