This famous phrase was said by astronaut Jack Swigert during the Apollo 13 trip to the Moon, on April 11, 1970, with three crew members. After hearing a strange noise, they discovered that one of the oxygen tanks had exploded. That’s when Swigert alerted the base in Houston about the problem. As there was a failure in communication, Commander Jim Lovell had to repeat the alert and became known as the author of the phrase. The most curious thing is that the original sentence was “Houston, we¿ve had a problem here”. But, the producers of the film Houston, We¿ve Got a Problem (1974) thought that this expression implied that the fault had already been resolved. They then modified the phrase to “Houston, we have a problem”, so that it would have more impact and could be used in other occasions – as in the movie Apollo 13 (1995), starring Tom Hanks.
Operation: back home
After a series of problems, the mission to reach the Moon was aborted and the challenge for the three astronauts became to reach Earth alive.
1. Shortly after launch, the first scare: a vibration called the “pogo effect”, resulting from the spontaneous burning of fuel, made the rocket’s central engine stop working. But the other four auxiliaries made up for the failure and managed to take the spacecraft to Earth orbit.
2. On the second day of the trip, a bang. An oxygen tank exploded in the spacecraft’s service module, where fuel cells and voyage supplies are kept. The crew warned the base about the problem and had the mission aborted
3. The crew turned off the command module and lodged in the lunar module, used only for landing on the Moon. Without fuel and with supplies for only two people for 36 hours, the solution was to ration water and oxygen, with each one being able to take only 200 ml of water a day!
4. The space shipwrecked had to filter the carbon dioxide produced by breathing. To do so, they fitted a square filter into a cylindrical tube. From Earth, engineers taught a kludge with hoses, which became known as «mailbox», saving the lives of astronauts
5. After studying various possibilities to bring Apollo 13 back, NASA decided that the best strategy would be to use lunar gravity. For this, it was necessary to use the landing engine to change the trajectory of the spacecraft. With no computers to re-route, Commander Lovell and his team turned to the stars to reposition the module. With a little push from the Moon, the return was started
6. Power to the command module, shut down after the oxygen tank exploded, was restored to control entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The task, however, was not easy, as the temperature did not exceed 4 oC and the humidity had created sheets of ice on the electrical panels.
7. Upon approaching Earth, the spacecraft lost contact with NASA for six minutes, but managed to enter the atmosphere. Nearly six days after liftoff, Apollo 13 plunged into the Pacific Ocean near the island of Samoa. The astronauts were rescued by the ship Iwo Jima, which was sailing 6.5 km from the crash site.
Chronology of facts
April 11, 1970, 1:13 pm Houston
Takeoff of the Saturn V rocket with Apollo 13 at Kennedy Space Center (Florida)
April 11th, 1:25 pm
Rocket’s central engine stops working
April 13th, 9:07 pm
Explosion in the oxygen tank. Crew issues alert: «Houston, we had a problem here»
April 14th, 8:40 pm
Crew members use lunar gravity and steer the spacecraft toward Earth
April 17th, 11:53 am
Upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, Apollo 13 lost communication with Houston for six minutes.
April 17th, 12:07 am
The spacecraft plunges into the Pacific Ocean and the astronauts are rescued alive
they were warned
For the superstitious, the Apollo 13 mission had everything to go wrong
unlucky number
Many people did not believe that the spacecraft, which bears the “13” in its name, could be successful in the mission. And, to complete the numbers of evil, the launch took place at 1:13 pm, and the explosion on the 13th.
premonition
Commander Jim Lovell’s wife, Marilyn, is said to have had a nightmare in which Apollo 13 exploded shortly after leaving Earth.
Replacement
A week before launch, one of the astronauts, Ken Mattingly, became ill and had to be replaced. Lovell nearly quit mission command because he didn’t trust his replacement, Jack Swigert. But since he didn’t want to miss the chance to step on the moon, he accepted the change.
SOURCES: Nasa, IMDB, SEE, SUPERINTERESTING, braeunig.us
CONSULTANCY: Marcos Pontes, astronaut
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