Per aspera ad astra (or, less commonly, ad astra per aspera) is a popular Latin phrase that means "through hardships to the stars". The phrase is one of the many Latin phrases that use the expression ad astra, meaning "to the stars".

Uses
Various organizations and groups use this expression and its variants.

Governmental entities
 Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
 State of Kansas (Ad astra per aspera)
 Municipality of Cheribon, Netherlands East Indies
 City of Gouda, The Netherlands
 Honored Scientist of Armenia

Military and government
 Department of Civil Aviation, Thailand
 Military Technical Academy in Bucharest, Romania
 National Defence Academy of Latvia
 South African Air Force
 Spanish Air Force
 Hon. Julie Payette, 29th Governor General of Canada
 Royal Life Guards (Denmark)

Literature
 In Kenta Shinohara's Astra Lost in Space, it is inscribed on a plaque on the bridge of the ship that the crew subsequently decided to name the Astra.
In Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan, it was quoted as both the motto of Martian Imperial Commandos, a unit within the larger Martian Army, in addition to being the motto of Kansas, U.S.A., Earth, Solar System, Milky Way.
In Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird", it was quoted as the motto of Maycombe, during the school play.

Music
 The subtitle of Moritz Moszkowski's set of fifteen Études de Virtuosité for piano, op. 72 (published 1903).
 The subtitle of Charles Villiers Stanford's Piano Trio No. 3, Op. 158 (1918).
 The title of the fourth album by ambient music duo Stars of the Lid (1998).
 The subtitle of Sergei Bortkiewicz's 3rd piano concerto (1927).
 The title of a song by Spiritual Beggars from their album Ad Astra (2000).
 The title of a song by Haggard (band) from their album "Eppur Si Muove" (2004).
 Acceptance has an instrumental track on their Phantoms album titled "Ad Astra Per Aspera" (2005). 
 The title of the second album (2011) by Abandon Kansas.
 Per Aspera Ad Aspera, the name of a best-of album by the band ASP (2014).
 The title of a march by Ernst Urbach op. 4 (1906).
 The title of an album of marches by the Royal Norwegian Air Force Band.
 The title of a composition by Hasaan Ibn Ali from his second Atlantic recording, never released, the master tapes of which were destroyed in the Atlantic warehouse fire of 1978.
 The subtitle of an instrumental song by the symphonic metal band Nightwish (2020).

Educational and research institutions

Australia
Queenwood School for Girls, Mosman NSW
Woodville High School, Adelaide
Albury High School, Albury, New South Wales
Girton Grammar School, Bendigo, Victoria

Austria
Universität Klagenfurt

Botswana
 St. Joseph's College, Kgale

Ecuador
Instituto Nacional Mejía,Quito, Ecuador

Estonia
Keila-Joa Boarding School, Türisalu
Jakob Westholm Secondary School, Tallinn

Honduras
Escuela Nacional de Música, Tegucigalpa
Instituto Salesiano San Miguel, Tegucigalpa

India
Clarence High School, Bangalore, Karnataka, India - Motto of Redwood House (Ad Astra)
St. Augustine's High School, kalimpong, District:Darjeeling, India
 Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), New Delhi, India
The Frank Anthony Public School,Kolkata,India
 The Frank Anthony Public School, Delhi, India - Motto of Ranger House 
St Joseph's High School, Dharwad, Karnataka, India
Antonio D'souza High School, Mumbai, India
Technology Research and Incubation Centre, Dimapur, Nagaland

Jamaica
Immaculate Conception High School, St. Andrew
Mount Alvernia High School, Montego Bay

Japan
 St. Francis Church, Tokyo, West-Hachioji, Gnosis Essene (HP)

Macau SAR, China
Postgraduate Association of University of Macau, Macau, China

Maldives
MNDF Fire and Rescue Services Training School, K.Viligili

New Zealand
Rotorua Boys' High School, Rotorua

Nigeria
Ilupeju College, Ilupeju, Lagos
Lagos Secondary Commercial Academy, LASCA
Kalabari National College, Buguma, Rivers State
Oriwu Model College, Igbogbo, Ikorodu

Norway
Stavanger Cathedral School, Stavanger
Sortland videregående skole, Nordland
Lillehammer videregående skole
NTNU

Pakistan
St Patrick's High School, Karachi
St. Patrick's College, Karachi

Paraguay
Universidad Autónoma de Asunción

Philippines
Far Eastern University - Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation, Quezon City
St. John Paul II College of Davao, Davao City
Rosevale School, Cagayan de Oro City
Juan R. Liwag Memorial High School, Gapan City
Cagayan State University, Tuguegarao City

Romania
Mihai Eminescu High School, Suceava
Colegiul National "Andrei Saguna" Brasov
Colegiul National "Doamna Stanca" Fagaras
Alexandru Papiu Ilarian High School, Targu-Mures
Andrei Mureşanu High School, Bistrița
, Csíkszereda (Liceul Teoretic "Márton Áron", Miercurea-Ciuc)
Ovidius High School, Constanta
Military Technical Academy, Bucharest

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent Grammar School, Kingstown

Slovakia
Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
Slovak Organisation for Space Activities

Slovenia
Prva gimnazija Maribor, Maribor
Gimnazija Jesenice, Jesenice
Gimnazija Škofja Loka, Škofja Loka

South Africa
Pietersburg Hoërskool
Tembisa Secondary School
South African Air Force
Ribane-Laka Secondary School
Chistlehurst Academics and Arts School

Sri Lanka
St. Paul's Girls' School, Milagiriya, Colombo District, Western Province

Sweden
Västmanland Air Force Wing

Ukraine
Space Museum dedicated to Korolyov in Zhytomyr
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
Bucha Ukrainian gymnasium

United Kingdom
The Royal School, Haslemere, Surrey
Colfe's School, Greenwich, London
Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend, Kent
Dr. Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham, Buckinghamshire
British Lawn Mower Racing Association

United States
California State University East Bay, Hayward, California
Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina
Cornelia Strong College, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina
Coventry High School, Coventry, Rhode Island
East Hampton High School, East Hampton, Connecticut
Greenhill School, Dallas, Texas
Irvington Union Free School District, Irvington, New York
Saint Joseph Academy, Brownsville, Texas
Lake View High School, Chicago, Illinois
Lyndon Institute, Lyndon Center, Vermont
Macopin Middle School, West Milford, New Jersey
Miami Central High School, Miami, Florida
Midwood High School, Brooklyn, New York
Mirman School, Los Angeles, California
Morristown-Beard School, Morristown, New Jersey
Mount Saint Michael Academy, Bronx, New York
Satellite High School, Satellite Beach, Florida
Seven Lakes High School, Katy, Texas
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey
Trinity Prep, Winter Park, Florida
Townsend Harris High School, Queens, New York
University High School, Fresno, California
University of Tennessee Space Institute, Tullahoma, Tennessee
Oak Harbor Academy Private School, Lemoore, California

Fraternities and sororities
Beta Sigma Psi National Lutheran Fraternity
Sigma Gamma Phi – Arethusa Sorority
Korp! Amicitia – Estonian student sorority.
Freemasons-Knight's Templar, 32nd Degree
K.Ö.St.V. Almgau Salzburg - Austrian Catholic Student Association
K.a.V. Danubia Wien-Korneuburg im ÖCV  -  Austrian Catholic Student Association

Popular culture
 Appears on the hull of the ship 'Searcher' in the second season of Buck Rogers.
 Garrison Keillor routinely references the phrase as the only Latin phrase he cared to remember on A Prairie Home Companion.
 Per Aspera Ad Astra is a Soviet Russian science fiction film by Richard Viktorov, written by Kir Bulychov.
Rip Torn says this phrase to David Bowie in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Tomo Milicevic of the band 30 Seconds to Mars has a tattoo on his right forearm reading 'per aspera et astra', with the band's logo in the background in red.
Aspera! Per aspera! Per ardua! Ad astra! is the refrain of the song "Aspera" by Erin McKeown on the album We Will Become Like Birds.
American singer, rapper, dancer, actress, and songwriter Kiely Williams has "Per aspera ad astra" tattooed on her right forearm.
Title of a play depicting the history of the fictional Maycomb County in To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the translation is given as from the mud to the stars.
Title of a song by Haggard, from the album Eppur Si Muove.
The name of an album by Abandon Kansas.
It is one of many hidden messages in the 2009 video game The Conduit.
Motto of the Martian Imperial Commandos in Kurt Vonnegut novel, The Sirens of Titan.
Title of a song by Seattle-based band Acceptance.
Title of a song by Goasia, appearing on the album From Other Spaces (Suntrip Records, 2007)
Appears on right side shoulder patch in Star Trek Enterprise, on the "newer" uniform style shown on the series finale. In Star Trek The Next Generation it is shown to be the motto of Starfleet.
The official motto of Solforce in the videogame Sword of the Stars.
Title of a song by the band Spiritual Beggars from their album Ad Astra.
Title of a song by the band Die Apokalyptischen Reiter from their album Samurai.
The final mission (Chapter 15) in the Mafia II video game
In a tattoo piece in The Raven
The phrase has been spoofed slightly by the band Ghost in the song "Per Aspera Ad Inferi" from their album Infestissumam literally meaning "Through hardships to hell".
Title of a background music from the Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire video games which plays during a voyage into space.
 In the 2015 film The Martian, at the end of the film astronaut Mark Watney is giving his first lecture to the Astronaut Candidate Program and the phrase appears embedded in the central floor area of the lecture hall around a logo
Title of character leveling achievements in Mistwalker's mobile game Terra Battle
Found in the Gravity Falls Journal #3, penned on the title page. Appears on the journal both in the show and on the real-life replica.
The title of a Pee Wee Gaskins album (2010).
 The title character in Ottessa Moshfegh's novel Eileen accepts and smokes a Pall Mall and refers to the motto on the package translated as "Through the thorns to the stars."
 On the ship the students find in Astra Lost in Space, there is a plaque with this saying on it.
 The motto of the Golds in Pierce Brown's Red Rising Series.
 Ad Astra is a 2019 American science fiction film by James Gray.
 Ad Astra Per Aspera title of one of the SCP Foundation's canons.

Others
As part of the official team crest of Arendal Football
A plaque honoring the astronauts of Apollo 1 at the launch site where they perished.
A tribute exhibit to the Apollo 1 Astronauts "Ad Astra Per Aspera - A Rough Road Leads to the Stars" opened on January 27, 2017, the 50th anniversary of the loss of the crew, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Inscribed on the crest of Pall Mall cigarettes packages
The theme of "POR CC XXI" by Kolese Kanisius Jakarta
Part of a custom paint job in World Of Tanks
Tradewinds Swiss
Space Development Network
Part three of the book Jepp who Defied the Stars by Katherine Marsh has the phrase as its title.
Appears in Morse code on the track titled "Sounds of Earth" on the Voyager Golden Record that has copies aboard the Voyager 1 & 2 spacecraft that are currently in interstellar space.

References

Latin phrases