"Houston, we have a problem" is a popular misquote of a phrase spoken during

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

, a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

mission in the

Apollo space program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, indep ...

and the third meant to land on the Moon. After an explosion occurred on board the spacecraft en route to the Moon around 56 hours into the mission,

Jack Swigert John Leonard Swigert Jr. (August 30, 1931 – December 27, 1982) was an American NASA astronaut, test pilot, mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and politician. In April 1970, as command module pilot of A ...

, the command module pilot, reported to

Mission Control Center A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages spaceflight, space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the gr ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas: "Okay, Houston ... we've had a problem here." After Swigert was prompted to repeat his words by Jack R. Lousma, the

capsule communicator Flight controllers are personnel who aid space flight by working in mission control centers such as NASA's Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center or ESA's European Space Operations Centre. Flight controllers work at computer consoles ...

at Mission Control,

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 the fi ...

, the mission commander, responded: "Ah, Houston, we've had a problem." The 1995 film ''

'' used the slight misquotation "Houston, we have a problem" in its dramatization of the mission, since it had become the popularly expected phrase. The phrase has been informally used to describe 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 part ...

Background

The Apollo 13 Flight Journal lists the timestamps and dialogue between the astronauts and Mission Control.

055:55:19 Swigert: Okay, Houston ... 055:55:19 Lovell: ... Houston... 055:55:20 Swigert: ... we've had a problem here. ause. 055:55:28 Lousma: This is Houston. Say again, please. 055:55:35 Lovell: arble.Ah, 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 ''

'', 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. (born October 8, 1944) is an A ...

made the change, stating that the verb tense actually used "wasn't as dramatic". Broyles and linguist Naomi S. Baron said the actual line spoken would not work well in a suspense movie. Movie viewers knew what had happened, while Mission Control did not at the time. The quote ranked at No. 50 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movie Quotes in June 2005.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{Apollo program, state=collapsed 1970 quotations Apollo 13 English phrases Jack Swigert Jim Lovell Quotations from science Misquotations 1995 quotations Quotations from film