The exact words
What really happened
Apollo 13 left Florida on April 11, 1970, carrying Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise toward the Moon. Two days later, about 200,000 miles from Earth, Mission Control asked the crew to stir the oxygen tanks, a routine chore. Seconds later there was a loud bang, warning lights came on, and the spacecraft began to lose power.
Jack Swigert, the command module pilot, keyed his microphone and said, “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” The capsule communicator in Houston asked him to say it again, and commander Jim Lovell repeated, “Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a main B bus undervolt.” The words were calm and almost understated, the tone of test pilots trained not to let fear into their voices.
How the words changed
For twenty-five years the line was known mostly to space enthusiasts. Then came Ron Howard’s 1995 film Apollo 13, based on Lovell’s book Lost Moon. In the film Tom Hanks, playing Lovell, says, “Houston, we have a problem.” The filmmakers changed the tense, which sounds more immediate, and gave it to the commander. The film was a huge hit, and the new version became a catchphrase for any small disaster.
How to use it
The real story is better than the catchphrase. The explosion was serious, and the crew survived by moving into the lunar module and improvising with Mission Control for four days before splashing down safely on April 17. That makes “we’ve had a problem” a good opener for a talk about staying calm under pressure. Quote the past tense when accuracy matters and credit Swigert as the first to say it.
What people get wrong
Jim Lovell said “Houston, we have a problem.”
Jack Swigert said it first, in the past tense, “we've had a problem here,” and Lovell repeated it. The present tense comes from the 1995 film.
Timeline
- April 11, 1970Apollo 13 launches for what was planned as the third Moon landing.
- April 13, 1970An oxygen tank in the service module explodes. Jack Swigert radios, “Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.” Asked to repeat, Jim Lovell says, “Houston, we've had a problem.”
- April 17, 1970After using the lunar module as a lifeboat, the crew splashes down safely in the Pacific.
- 1995Ron Howard's film Apollo 13 has Tom Hanks, as Lovell, say “Houston, we have a problem,” and the present-tense version becomes the famous one.
Use it in a speech
Questions people ask
What did the Apollo 13 astronauts actually say?
Jack Swigert said, “Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.” When Mission Control asked them to repeat, Jim Lovell said, “Houston, we've had a problem.”
Who said “Houston, we have a problem”?
Tom Hanks, playing Jim Lovell in the 1995 film Apollo 13. The filmmakers changed the tense to make it more dramatic.
What was the problem?
An oxygen tank in the service module exploded, cutting off much of the spacecraft's power and oxygen. The crew moved into the lunar module and returned safely to Earth four days later.
Cite this quote
These cite the original source directly, so you can use them in an essay or paper. Always check your teacher's required style.
Sources
- NASA, Apollo 13 technical air-to-ground voice transcription (April 1970).
- NASA, Apollo 13 mission overview.
- Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, Lost Moon (1994), later retitled Apollo 13.