posted 03-24-2012 11:14 PM               

Mars is about a 45-minute drive north of Pittsburgh, but at that time, was rather rural in nature. The members of the Mars Area Foundation for Education Enrichment (MAFEE) contributed funds to provide special educational and cultural experiences to help their students realize that they were part of the world.

So, what special experience did the students seek? They wrote to then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to inquire, "Wouldn't you like the Russians to be the first to visit Mars — Pennsylvania, that is!" Never believing that they would actually receive a response, they were stunned by the arrival of a brief telex stating only that "Cosmonaut Hero Sergei Krikalev will visit the children of Mars in three weeks."

The students then wrote to NASA and said, "You're not going to let the Russians beat us to Mars, are you?" And so it was that Astronaut Mario Runco, Jr. joined Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev for the first US-Soviet mission to Mars (Pennsylvania!).