Here's a story you may not know about...
Back in 1991 the Soviet Union was collapsing. At the time the Soviet Mir Space Station was in Orbit and had a crew who knew little of what was happening at home. The crew included one one Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev who used to chat to Amateur Radio users. One such user was a Donegal man called Manus McClafferty who regularly updated the Cosmanaut with what was really happening back home; in contrast to the official news Krikalev received from his superiors.
A short film, 'Mir Friends' was made about their relationship in 1999 (trailer:
vimeo.com/36862377
)
Krikalev went on to spend almost more time in space than any other human (803 days), and has served on Soyuz, Mir, The Space Shuttle and the ISS, he is now the administrator of Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center.
Manus passed away last week at his home in Falcarragh, Donegal. RIP
  