THE POWER OF PERSISTENCE IN SPACE
Rod Pyle, Ad Astra Editor-in-Chief
There’s power in persistence. In this issue, we celebrate two space missions that demonstrated this trait in very different ways, as well as some future ones that will be the result of great tenacity. First up, his year marks the 50th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 13. Shortly after launch in April 1970, the spacecraft experienced a nearly catastrophic explosion of an oxygen tank on the Service Module. It was only through the calm responses of the crew and heroic levels of effort on the part of Mission Control that the astronauts were able to return to Earth alive despite the staggering odds against them. This was persistence in the extreme: focused determination to save the flight from disaster. Ben Evans’ tale of the rescue follows in these pages.