From ‘The Eagle has landed’ to ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’
You’ve probably heard the sayings at least a few times throughout your life.
Sometimes the context is lost. Which astronaut said what? What presidents spoke out about the space program during landmark moments throughout NASA’s storied history? What is the story behind, “Houston, we’ve had a problem” before Tom Hanks uttered the words in the movie “Apollo 13”?
So here’s a refresher course on some of the most famous sayings from space.
“The Eagle has landed.”
The saying was first made popular when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon for the first time alongside Buzz Aldrin. He said, “The Eagle has landed,” to tell NASA Mission Control Center that the pair had made a safe trip to the moon on July 20, 1969. Millions of people around the world watched the historic landing.
“That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Armstrong is also responsible for this famous quote, which he said at approximately 9:56 p.m. Houston time, when he first walked on the moon. It wasn’t until the 2000s, however, that the correct phrasing of what Armstrong uttered came to light. New technology showed that Armstrong actually said “one small step for a man,” instead of the widely quoted saying without the extra “a.” The famed astronaut had claimed this is what he said originally, but it wasn’t found until a software analysis was completed by Australia-based computer programmer Peter Shann Ford.
“Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
This phrase has been used *cough* one too many times. Anytime something goes haywire in Houston, it seems like this phrase comes up. However, it was first used during the attempted third mission to the moon in 1970. An oxygen tank exploded and command module pilot John Swigert uttered the famous words. Fortunately, the astronauts escaped alive. Decades later, the phrase remains a cultural touchstone during problems that arise in Houston.
“Godspeed, John Glenn.”
John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth on Feb. 20, 1962, aboard Friendship 7. The quote came from Scott Carpenter, who wished him well as he was sent off into space. Carpenter eventually would become the second American to orbit the earth a few months later on May 24, 1962. When Carpenter died in 2013, Glenn gave his friend a similar sendoff by saying in a statement, “Godspeed, Scott Carpenter — Great Friend.”
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
President John F. Kennedy gave this historic speech at Rice University in September 1962, when he made it clear that by the end of the decade he wanted the United States space program to land on the moon. The speech itself became one of his most famous, with the line above becoming one of the most well-known.
“To look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible.”
Glenn said these famous words after he went on his second space flight in 1998 on space shuttle Discovery. During this mission, Glenn became the oldest man to fly into space at 77 years old. The mission lasted nine days and Glenn orbited the Earth 134 times — much longer than Glenn’s first mission, when he spent just under five hours circling the Earth three times.
“(They) slipped the surly bonds of Earth.”
President Ronald Reagan said these words during a poignant speech given on Jan. 28, 1986, about the seven people who lost their lives in the space shuttle Challenger explosion. “The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives,” Reagan said. “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.” The nation mourned the loss of Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and teacher Christa McAuliffe.