A situation came up in game today and I'm curious if our decision was correct.

Ship 1 was close to Ship 2 and an asteroid, and attempted to fly past Ship 2. Ship 1's movement template overlapped the asteroid, and in fact would have placed the ship on the asteroid, except that it overlapped Ship 2 before reaching the asteroid and thus stopped short of the rock. Does Ship 1 have to roll for asteroid damage?

We decided that Ship 1 did have to roll, since the obstacle rules state that you do so if the template overlaps OR the base overlaps when executing the maneuver, not when the maneuver is completed ... but I'd like to know if we ruled correctly.

(As it turned out the roll was a blank and Ship 1 escaped unharmed, only to fly through the asteroid on the next turn and roll a hit, losing its last hull point and destroying itself in the process.)

If you overlapped a ship before getting to the obstacle, then the ship overlap would take precedence and you never made it to the asteroid. So you wouldn't have to roll for the asteroid.

If the final position of Ship 1 overlapped Ship 2, it immediately rewinds until it is Touching instead.

If this Touching location does not overlap the Obstacle, then you do not have to roll damage or lose an action (to the asteroid. You still lost that action by ramming Ship 2).

Isn't the maneuver template overlapping an obstacle a trigger, regardless of whether the ship actually ends up on it?

When a ship executes a maneuver in which either the maneuver template or the ship’s base physically overlaps an obstacle token, follow these steps: 1. Execute the maneuver as normal, but skip the “Perform Action” step. 2. The player rolls one attack die. The ship then suffers any damage or critical damage rolled (see “Suffering Damage” on page 16).

The template overlaps - roll for damage.

I want to double check that the maneuver is being performed correctly because your descriptions

Ship 1's movement template overlapped the asteroid, and in fact would have placed the ship on the asteroid, except that it overlapped Ship 2 before reaching the asteroid

OR the base overlaps when executing the maneuver, not when the maneuver is completed

are a little vague. A ship does not move along the maneuver template from beginning to end. When a ship executes a maneuver you pick it up at one end and place it down at the other. Only if the ship's base would overlap another ship at the end of the template do you have to move the ship back along the template until it is no longer overlapping a ship, only touching it.

Assuming that was being done correctly and ship 1 in your example executed a maneuver that would have had it overlapping both the asteroid AND ship 2, you moved ship 1 back until it was no longer overlapping ship 2 and that resulted in only the maneuver template overlapping the asteroid past the point where ship 1 ends up, then no, the asteroid is not triggered. In a ship overlapping ship situation, the part of the move template that extends past the moving ship will trigger obstacles.

The rules citation for this is in the FAQ, last page (page 18)

When a ship executes a maneuver in which either the maneuver template or the ship’s base physically overlaps an obstacle token, follow these steps: 1. Execute the maneuver as normal, but skip the “Perform Action” step. 2. The player rolls one attack die. The ship then suffers any damage or critical damage rolled (see “Suffering Damage” on page 16).

The template overlaps - roll for damage.

Due the the ship being overlapped first, the maneuver doesn't get to be "executed as normal", so the asteroid doesn't come into play. See Forgottenlore's FAQ entry above.