We’re still reeling. We had an inkling last issue was going to be popular, but nothing prepared us for the overwhelming response it received. #40 stock was snapped up in minutes online and was sold out in most stores around the UK within hours. We had such a massive influx of subscribers, we even had to reprint the magazine just to keep up. At the time of writing, we’ve still got a few subscription copies left, so if you’re yet to grab one, see pages 26-27 for details. You can elect to receive #40 as your first issue, but only while stocks last.

Which now brings us to this issue. The difficult second album. How do you top the first magazine issue in history to give away a free computer on its cover? It turns out you can’t. So we’re just going to carry on where we left off. On #40’s cover we said you could use #PiZero to learn to code while playing Minecraft, and this month we’re proving it.

In our Minecraft Mashups cover feature (starting on page 16) we’ve cherry-picked some of our favourite recent ideas and experiments, some of which cross the divide between Minecraft’s virtual world and our own. Make Steve move with a wave of your hand, create amazing music and visual effects, and even have your virtual avatar take control of your electronic devices.

To celebrate the successful arrival of ESA astronaut Tim Peake to the International Space Station, we’ve also got another ten pages of amazing projects and games you can make with the Sense HAT, the same hardware in the Astro Pi flight units Tim will be using over his next six months on the ISS. You can keep up with everything happening in orbit at astro-pi.org.

Russell Barnes