2013
Deep Impact
NASA's lessons-learned record describes a clock-time conversion overflow that disabled the spacecraft. A timing calculation can determine whether a spacecraft can orient itself and communicate.
NASA Lessons Learned: Deep ImpactWhen counters
run out of room.
Related failures show why finite representations matter. These are not all instances of the Unix year 2038 boundary.
2014
YouTube & Gangnam Style
Google documented the video reaching two billion views. That puts a view counter close to the signed 32-bit maximum of 2,147,483,647. The widely repeated “broke YouTube” story is not evidence of a Unix timestamp failure.
Google's two-billion-view milestone2015
Boeing 787 generator controls
An FAA directive described a software counter overflow after 248 days of continuous power. Generator control units could enter failsafe mode together, creating a risk of losing all AC electrical power.
FAA: 2015 airworthiness directiveThe shared lesson
A counter's unit, width, signedness, and conversion rules determine its useful lifetime. A device's physical lifespan can exceed the assumptions built into its software.