Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Speech ·123 of 348
"Houston, we have a problem."
They never said that.
What people say
"Houston, we have a problem."
What was actually said
"Houston, we've had a problem." Jack Swigert, then Jim Lovell — Apollo 13 mission, 13 April 1970
Why it stuck
The real transmission used past tense. Apollo 13 (the 1995 film) rewrote it to present tense for urgency, and the film's version is now what everyone remembers.
Both Swigert ("OK, Houston, we've had a problem here") and Lovell ("Houston, we've had a problem") used the past tense on the original loop.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.