''Marooned'' is a 1964
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
thriller novel
Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. S ...
by
Martin Caidin
Martin Caidin (September 14, 1927 – March 24, 1997) was an American author, screenwriter, and an authority on aeronautics and aviation.
Caidin began writing fiction in 1957. In his career he authored more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books ...
, about a crewed spacecraft stranded in Earth orbit, oxygen running out, and only an experimental craft available to attempt a rescue. A
film based on the novel led Caidin to prepare a revised version of it in 1968. The film was released in 1969, four months after the
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...
mission, with the revised novel sold by book stores a few weeks earlier.
1964 version
The first edition of the novel ''Marooned'' opens with the central character, Major Richard "Dick" Pruett, attempting to come to terms with his impending doom. Pruett, an astronaut in the
Mercury-Atlas IV program, is in orbit alone. His engines have failed to fire for re-entry and he is stranded in orbit, where he faces death due to
asphyxiation
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that ca ...
as he depletes the on-board supply of oxygen. The story goes into an extended flashback that reviews Pruett's development as a US Air Force fighter test pilot and training as an astronaut.
As Pruett reviews his life, a friend of his in the astronaut corps, Jim Dougherty, refuses to accept that all is lost. He pushes NASA officials to mount a rescue mission using the prototype of a new spacecraft in development, the two-man
Gemini
Gemini may refer to:
Space
* Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac
** Gemini in Chinese astronomy
* Project Gemini, the second U.S. crewed spaceflight program
* Gemini Observatory, consisting of telescopes in the Norther ...
.
The challenges are formidable. The rescue mission must be prepared and launched in a matter of mere days. Dougherty must fly the untested Gemini spacecraft solo, achieve a rendezvous with the Mercury vessel stranded in orbit, get Pruett on board the new spacecraft in the empty co-pilot's seat, and return to Earth. (At the time the novel was written, none of these tasks – Gemini launch, rendezvous or EVA – had been attempted.)
As NASA scrambles to prepare and launch the rescue mission, the
Soviets
Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union.
Nationality policy in ...
secretly make their own plans to rescue Pruett first, rushing to send a
cosmonaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
aloft in a
Vostok Vostok refers to east in Russian but may also refer to:
Spaceflight
* Vostok programme, Soviet human spaceflight project
* Vostok (spacecraft), a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union
* Vostok (rocket family), family of rockets derived from ...
spacecraft. (In this version, the Soviets have already achieved the orbital objectives of rendezvous, docking and extravehicular activity
VA in real life the Soviets did not achieve all these milestones until 1969.) Ultimately Dougherty succeeds in his mission and rescues Pruett; cosmonaut Andrei Yakovlev in the Vostok does rendezvous with the Mercury and provides assistance in the rescue (by using high-intensity spotlights to improve visibility) but does not take an active physical role in it. The novel ends with all three spacemen returning safely to Earth.
1968-69 version
In 1969 a film based on the novel, also entitled ''Marooned'', was released. The year coincided with the first Moon landings and public interest in human space flight was high. By 1969 both the Mercury and Gemini programs had passed into history. Plans were being made for the
Apollo Applications Program
The Apollo Applications Program (AAP) was created as early as 1966 by NASA headquarters to develop science-based human spaceflight missions using hardware developed for the Apollo program. AAP was the ultimate development of a number of official ...
, a series of missions to take place after the Moon missions. Flights would take place in Earth orbit and make use of the Apollo and
Saturn V
Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with three stages, and powered with liquid fuel. It was flown from 196 ...
hardware. Among the applications planned was the first American
space station, made from a converted Saturn V S-4B booster stage. (The station and its associated missions would acquire the name
Skylab
Skylab was the first United States space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Major operations ...
, with missions flown 1973-74.) The film's plot remained the same as the 1964 book but the story was revised to make the space hardware and mission plans current.
With the advent of the film, Caidin prepared a significantly revised version of the novel as a tie-in to coincide with the film. An idiosyncratic book, the revision is part original novel and part novelization, its major alterations of plot and character adapted from the screenplay by Mayo Simon, which re-imagined the story along more then-contemporary lines; in keeping with this, Simon gets screenplay by-line credit on the cover and title page of the new edition, as well as specific acknowledgement from Caidin in a foreword. (In all likelihood, Caidin was approached by Bantam Books
ho had published the paperback edition of the original and were a prolific publisher of novelizationsto revise the novel, but it's also possible he approached Bantam with the notion, upon reading the screenplay.)
The revision concerns three US astronauts—Jim Pruett, "Buzz" Lloyd and Clayton "Stoney" Stone—stranded in an
Apollo spacecraft
The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth. The expendable (single-use) spacecraft ...
named ''Ironman One''. Pruett's back story was also rewritten to include a wife; in the 1964 version, Dick Pruitt was single. With the crew launched on a planned seven-month mission docked to the S-4B workshop, ground controllers, including NASA Director Charles Keith, decide to terminate the flight two months early as Lloyd begins showing signs of fatigue and deteriorating performance.
The astronauts have separated from the station; now, with the Apollo main engine inoperative, they have insufficient fuel to return to the station. Pruett's friend, now named Ted Dougherty, plans a rescue mission using an experimental X-RV
lifting body
A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft or spacecraft configuration in which the body itself produces lift. In contrast to a flying wing, which is a wing with minimal or no conventional fuselage, a lifting body can be thought of as a fuselage ...
spacecraft, an early study for the
Space Shuttle orbiter
The Space Shuttle orbiter is the spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle, a partially reusable orbital spacecraft system that was part of the discontinued Space Shuttle program. Operated from 1977 to 2011 by NASA, the U.S. space agency, thi ...
. The X-RV will be mounted on a
Titan III
Titan was a family of United States expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. The Titan I and Titan II were part of the US Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet until 1987. The space launch vehicle versions contribut ...
-C rocket reassigned for the purpose.
In the revised novel the Soviet plans involve a
Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис ...
spacecraft. Caidin named the flight "Soyuz 11". (The real-life
Soyuz 11
Soyuz 11 (russian: link=no, Союз 11, lit=Union 11) was the only crewed mission to board the world's first space station, Salyut 1 ( Soyuz 10 had soft-docked, but had not been able to enter due to latching problems). The crew, Georgy Dob ...
mission, in 1971, ended in tragedy when all three cosmonauts perished during re-entry while returning from
Salyut 1
Salyut 1 (DOS-1) (russian: Салют-1) was the world's first space station launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. The Salyut program followed this with five more successful launches of seven more stations. The f ...
, the first occupied space station.) The film's
screenplay was less current on this detail, referring to the Russian spacecraft as a
Voskhod. In this version, Pruett dies in open space while trying to fix the ''Ironman''; Lloyd and Stone are rescued. In a departure from the 1964 version, cosmonaut Andrei Yakovlev actually does physically assist Dougherty in an EVA rescuing the Ironman astronauts.
The 1969 version also features Dougherty's launch in the Titan IIIC being through the eye of a hurricane, after an earlier attempt, which might have been in time to save all three astronauts, is scrubbed at T-59 seconds by excessive wind conditions. In the 1964 version, Dougherty's launch is in uneventful conditions.
Title references
Caidin makes a brief appearance in the film as a reporter describing the arrival of the X-RV at
Cape Canaveral. He made ''Marooned'' the subject of a self-reference in a later novel, ''
Cyborg IV''.
The main character,
Steve Austin
Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson; December 18, 1964), better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American media personality, actor, and retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most ...
, says of a situation: "A friend of mine wrote about it. Did you ever read the book ''Marooned''?"
Astronaut
Jim Lovell
James Arthur Lovell Jr. (; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of th ...
and his wife
Marilyn Lovell
James Arthur Lovell Jr. (; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of the f ...
referred to the film years later in a special interview. Their recollection is shared as a feature on the DVD release of ''
Apollo 13'', a 1995 film directed by
Ron Howard
Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. He ...
. The couple describes a 1969 film (never named) in which an astronaut "named Jim" faces mortal peril in an Apollo spacecraft. The couple describe the way the film gave Lovell's wife nightmares. Her experience inspired a dream sequence in ''Apollo 13'' that recalls the 1960s-vintage cinematic look of ''Marooned''.
First edition
*New York : Dutton, 1964
Current publication
*
References
{{Reflist
1964 American novels
1964 science fiction novels
American novels adapted into films
American science fiction novels
Novels about NASA
Novels by Martin Caidin
Space exploration novels
Techno-thriller novels
E. P. Dutton books