Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian Cosmonaut and the first woman in space has declared that Russia will be the first nation to successfully land human beings on planet Mars, per the Russian news agency TASS. Ms. Tereshkova based her assertion on the fact that the United States is the sole world superpower, while Russia is under a crippling economic sanctions regime and yet, the US has no capability of sending humans into space and must rent rides from Russia. Ms. Tereshkova further expressed regret that her somewhat advanced years will not allow her to join the Mars mission. “Otherwise I would have never ceded my seat to anyone”, she concluded.