CBS Gives 'Go' For 'Mission Control' TV Pilot from Author of 'The Martian'

the martian author andy weir
"The Martian" author Andy Weir, seen at NASA's Mission Control in Houston in May 2015, is writing the script for "Mission Control," a new TV series for CBS. (Image credit: NASA/James Blair and Lauren Harnett)

The author of "The Martian" just got the "go" to launch a pilot of a different type.

Andy Weir, who penned the bestselling book that was the basis for the 2015 feature film "The Martian," which starred Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars, has now written the script for a new space adventure headed for television.

"For the past several months, I have been working on a TV show pilot and I'm happy to announce that CBS is going to make it!" Weir announced Tuesday (Jan. 17) on Facebook. [Six Surprising Facts About 'The Martian']

"It's called 'Mission Control' and it's a drama set at NASA," he described. "The main characters are flight controllers at the Mission Control Center in Houston and the astronauts aboard the space station that they take care of."

CBS Television Studios announced it had ordered the pilot episode for "Mission Control" on Tuesday.

"We're about to begin casting it," said Weir. "And we have an impressive group of behind-the-camera people already involved. Notably Aditya Sood, whom I worked with before on 'The Martian.'"

Simon Kinberg, who with Sood was also a producer on the "The Martian," will executive produce the new series.

Weir, who was a computer programmer and amateur writer until his early serialized version of "The Martian" attracted the attention of a publisher and, later, director Ridley Scott, toured NASA's real Mission Control Center during a visit to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in May 2015.

Named after NASA's first flight director, the Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center (MCC) was established in Houston for the Gemini program in 1965. The facility was subsequently used to manage all of the Apollo missions to the moon, the expeditions to the Skylab orbital workshop, the joint U.S. and Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 135 space shuttle flights and more than 16 years of continuous crewed operations aboard the International Space Station.

"When I was a kid, [while] all the other kids pretended to be astronauts, I pretended to be a flight controller," replied Weir in response to his announcement on Facebook.

In Houston, Weir said he was impressed with the amount of integration and teamwork that was required to operate the space station. The fact that flight controllers have call signs, he said, is "narrative gold" in terms of storytelling.

Even before his visit to NASA, Weir demonstrated that he understood and appreciated the work of mission control in writing "The Martian."

"The focus on [stranded astronaut Mark] Watney and what was happening on the ground in Houston is a very realistic scenario of what we go through [here] when we train crew members and flight controllers who must quickly analyze a situation and prioritize tasks," said Ellen Ochoa, director of Johnson Space Center and a former shuttle astronaut.

On Tuesday, Weir said he wanted "Mission Control" to also be faithful to NASA's reality.

"Of course, I am all about scientific accuracy and this show will be no exception," Weir said of the CBS series. "Should be a hell of a show!"

Watch a video about the history of NASA's Mission Control Center at collectSPACE.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2017 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Robert Z. Pearlman
collectSPACE.com Editor, Space.com Contributor

Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, an online publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018. He previously developed online content for the National Space Society and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, helped establish the space tourism company Space Adventures and currently serves on the History Committee of the American Astronautical Society, the advisory committee for The Mars Generation and leadership board of For All Moonkind. In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History.