"Houston, we have a problem" is a popular but slightly erroneous quotation from the radio communications between the
Apollo 13 astronauts
Jack Swigert,
Jim Lovell
James Arthur Lovell Jr. (; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of th ...
and the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
Mission Control Center ("
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
") during the Apollo 13 spaceflight in 1970, as the astronauts communicated their discovery of the explosion that crippled their spacecraft to mission control.
The words actually spoken, initially by Swigert, were "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here". After being prompted to repeat the transmission by
CAPCOM Jack R. Lousma, this time Lovell responded with "Uh, Houston, we've had a problem."
Since then, the phrase "Houston, we have a problem" has become popular, being used to account, informally, the emergence of an unforeseen problem, often with a sense of ironic
understatement
Understatement is an expression of lesser strength than what the speaker or writer actually means or than what is normally expected. It is the opposite of embellishment or exaggeration, and is used for emphasis, irony, hedging, or humor. A partic ...
.
The message
The Apollo 13 Flight Journal lists the timestamps and dialogue between the astronauts and Mission Control.
Along with the original audio, the message was:
55:55:19 Swigert: Okay, Houston...
55:55:19 Lovell:
arbled
55:55:20 Swigert: ...we've had a problem here.
55:55:28 Lousma: This is Houston. Say again, please.
55:55:35 Lovell: Uh, Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a Main B Bus Undervolt.
In Chapter 13 of ''Apollo Expeditions to the Moon'' (1975), Jim Lovell recalls the event: "Jack Swigert saw a warning light that accompanied the bang, and said, 'Houston, we've had a problem here.' I came on and told the ground that it was a main B bus undervolt. The time was 21:08 hours on April 13."
In media
In the 1995 film ''
Apollo 13'', the actual quote was shortened to "Houston, we have a problem". Screenwriter
William Broyles Jr.
William Dodson Broyles Jr.
Filmreference.com. Accessed November 28, 2022.
made the change, stating that the verb tense actually used "wasn't as dramatic". Broyles and American University linguist
Naomi S. Baron
Naomi S. Baron (born September 27, 1946, New York, NY) is a linguist and professor emerita of linguistics at the Department of World Languages and Cultures at American University in Washington, D.C.
Education and career
Baron earned a B.A. in ...
said the actual line spoken would not work well in a
suspense movie. The quote ranked at No. 50 on
AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes in June 2005.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
*
{{Apollo program
1970 neologisms
Apollo 13
English phrases
Jack Swigert
Jim Lovell
Quotations from science
Misquotations
1995 neologisms
Quotations from film