This is a piece of history that’s so ingrained in modern culture that it’s rarely, if ever, questioned. Those who have enjoyed Ron Howard’s excellent 1995 movie, Apollo 13, will have heard the recreation of these words uttered during the fateful NASA space mission that occurred in April 1970. In that movie, they were spoken by astronaut Jim Lovell, who had been commanding that flight. But is that how history really played out?

The Race to the Moon

Let’s go back to May 25, 1961, when President John F. Kennedy, speaking to a joint session of Congress, laid out a bold and daring vision. The nation, he said, “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”

This was the time of the Cold War. Embroiled in a simmering under-the-counter battle for world dominance, America and the Soviet Union entered into what has come to be defined as the “space race”—each nation vying to be the first to explore a bold, new frontier. It was a race that America was losing. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1. It followed this success in 1961 when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.

The Apollo Era

America needed a win, and the Apollo program was the answer—a series of missions which would lead to the landing of the first man on the moon. In 1969, with Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong achieved that feat. Kennedy was not alive to bear witness, but America’s place in the history of space exploration was secure.

By the time Apollo 13 was launched, public attitudes had shifted, interest had declined, and Congress had reduced NASA’s budget. Nevertheless, Lovell, along with astronauts Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, was bound for the moon, and their unexpected tribulations would soon have a nation watching breathlessly. Two days into their mission, disaster struck. Following a routine stirring of the vessel’s oxygen tanks, a loud bang was heard. The explosion, resulting from faulty wiring, severely damaged the command module. The mission to the moon was off, with the crew and Mission Control now entirely focused on bringing the three astronauts safely home.

How the Film Made It Famous

In the movie Apollo 13, immediately following the explosion, Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) contacts Mission Control and speaks the words: “Houston…we have a problem.” This is wrong on two counts. Firstly, it was in fact Jack Swigert who initially made Houston aware of the disaster. Secondly, the actual words he used were: “OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

So, from where did this confusion arrive? Well, the primary source remains up for debate, but fingers point to a popular 1974 television dramatization of events titled “Houston, We’ve Got a Problem.” Whatever the truth, by 1995, the legendary phrase was firmly ingrained in the public consciousness. Ron Howard, although aware of the error, chose to go with the more familiar version simply because it had become so widely believed that audiences would certainly have expected to hear it.

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