Houston, we have a problem

English 2021 April 11 Etymology thumb A misquotation of the phrases “Houston, we’ve had a problem here” and “Houston, we’ve had a problem” said by the American astronauts Jim Lovell (1928–2025) and Jack Swigert (1931–1982), who were crew members of the Apollo 13 moon flight, to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, on April 13, 1970, after an oxygen tank triggered an explosion which led to the mission being aborted.Apollo 13: Day 3, Part 2: ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’ NASA History Division https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap13fj/08day3-problem.html https://web.archive.org/web/20201212183613/https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap13fj/08day3-problem.html 12 December 2020 21 April 2020.James A[rthur] Lovell Jim Lovell ‘Houston, We’ve Had a Problem’ Edgar M[aurice] Cortright Apollo Expeditions to the Moon NASA SP 350 Washington, D.C. Scientific and Technical Information Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1975 249 https://books.google.com/books?id=YksCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA249 1027023132 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 2108 hours on April 13. The phrase in the form “Houston, we have a problem” was popularized by the film Apollo 13 (1995). The American screenwriter William Broyles Jr. (born 1944) altered the original phrases as he felt that “[t]he past perfect tense wasn’t as dramatic”. However, the phrase has been used earlier, for example, as the title of a 1974 television movie about the Apollo 13 mission.Michael S. Rosenwald ‘Houston, we have a problem’: The amazing history of the iconic Apollo 13 misquote The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/04/13/houston-we-have-a-problem-the-amazing-history-of-the-iconic-apollo-13-misquote/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210408061249/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/04/13/houston-we-have-a-problem-the-amazing-history-of-the-iconic-apollo-13-misquote/ 8 April 2021 Washington, D.C. The Washington Post Company 14 April 2017 0190-8286 638319713 30 March 2021. Pronunciation en /ˈh(j)uːst(ə)n ˌwiː hæv ə ˈpɹɒbləm/ RP en /ˈ(h)justən ˌwi hæv ə ˈpɹɑbləm/ GA en En-au-Houston, we have a problem.ogg AU en Hous ton, we have a prob lem Phrase phr en US humorous Used to report that a (major) problem has occurred. en Dan Ramsey Complete Idiot’s Guide to Solar Power for Your Home Indianapolis, Ind. w:Alpha Books 2002 Complete Idiot’s Guide xvii https://books.google.com/books?id=XMzkP9pu054C&pg=RA1-PR17 978-0-02-864393-9 Houston, we have a problem. We're running out of oil! The petroleum that fuels our daily lives is getting harder to find. en 2025 November 12 Tom Edwards Tackling the 'Euston Rush' RAIL 1048 32 My own contribution for the BBC London headline at the time was: "Euston, we have a problem." Translations used to report that a (major) problem has occurred Armenian: hy Հյուսթոն, մենք խնդիր ունենքէ Basque: eu Houston, arazo bat daukagu Bulgarian: bg Хюстън, имаме проблем! Dutch: nl Houston, we hebben een probleem Finnish: fi Houston, meillä on ongelma French: fr Houston, nous avons un problème Galician: gl Houston, temos un problema German: de Houston, wir haben ein Problem Italian: it Houston, abbiamo un problema Polish: pl Houston, mamy problem Portuguese: pt Houston, nós temos um problema Russian: ru Хьюстон, у нас проблема Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: sh Хјустон, имамо проблем! idiom Latin: sh Houston, imamo problem! idiom, Croatian, sh Hjuston, imamo problem! idiom, Serbian Slovene: sl Houston, imamo problem! Spanish: es Jiuston, tenemos un problema Spain, humorous, es Houston, tenemos un problema Turkish: tr Houston, bir sorunumuz var Ukrainian: uk Г'юстоне, у нас проблема References Further reading https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/houston-we-have-a-problem.html en sentences en Houston