Alternate universe Apollo 13 story? YES PLEASE!
I loved the first 20 minutes. It was a wonderful bit of world-building, there was space there to introduce some excellent character development (meaning: we have some great characters here and given time they can do some really interesting things), and just when I was thinking "this is great, but where's the story?" stuff started to happen.
I agree that the setup:action ratio was far too large for a short story, but OK for a novella. Yes, it wasn't resolved, and no, we don't know what happened, but in my eyes (ears?) that's not the point. To me this was a teaser-trailer or introductory story to a wonderful universe whose only difference from ours is that instead of trying to spread outwards (to space) humanity is trying to go back to its roots (oceans). I would love to explore that universe, the people who live in it, how they differ from us, perhaps even the fundamental psychological difference of out (forward) vs. in (back).
And before the history buffs or professional nitpickers go "But in Apollo 13 they came back safely and the project wasn't scuttled" let me just say that I am aware of that. The stories are similar, but not identical. That's the advantage of fiction. You get to make stuff up, create a new ending.
It's just that the whole setting (cold war, Kennedy) and the name of the project got me to thinking of the Apollo program.