Space history, we have a problem
On April 13, 1970, the Apollo 13 mission to the moon was rocked by an on-board explosion. The command module went dark. Earth was 200,000 miles away. An astronaut radioed mission control: “Houston, we have a problem.”
The phrase became a cultural touchstone. Sportscasters say it. Politicians say it. It’s become shorthand for saying something has gone awry, sometimes terribly. Except it’s wrong.
Up in space that night, after the explosion, this was the actual dialogue between mission control and astronauts Jack Swigert and James Lovell.
Swigert: “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”
Mission control: “This is Houston. Say again, please.”
Lovell: “Uh, Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
Search Google for “Houston, we have a problem,” and you’ll get 800,000 results. Search Google for “OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” and you’ll get 3,180.
So where did “Houston, we have a problem” come from?
Last year, the Houston Chronicle identified the culprit — or at least purported to.
“It was 21 years ago this week that ‘Apollo 13’ starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard was released into theatres,” the story said. “Soon after, the world became infected with what is easily one of the most annoying catchphrases ever uttered.”
Naomi S. Baron, an American University linguist, said in the movies, you don’t need the “OK,” which is just filler signalling that the speaker of the word “OK” — or “so,” “look, or “well” — is taking control in a conversation. Mission control needed the signal. Movie viewers don’t.
And then there’s the tense.
“It is saying something has happened, and it’s over,” Baron said.
That would make for a very bad bit of a dialogue in a suspense movie.
Screenwriter William Broyles Jr. takes credit for changing the line for the movie.
Such is the power of film, Tom Hanks, and simple language to catch on in the culture — right? No. The phrase goes back even further.
NASA used it in 1983 as the title of its weekly radio program about space history.
And the phrase goes back even further than that. In 1974, Universal Television produced a TV movie about the Apollo 13 mission.
Lovell hated it. In a Washington Post story, he called it “fictitious and in poor taste.” The title of the movie: “Houston, We Have a Problem.”