The title of this post is a slight misquotation of the original, which stems from April 14, 1970 and–in the words of Jack Swigert, Apollo 13’s Command Module Pilot–was actually, “Okay, Houston…we’ve had a problem here.”
The post title comes from the 1995 film, Apollo 13, and has passed into the vernacular as the authentic description from the crew of the near-catastrophic on-board explosion which depleted the spacecraft’s oxygen supply and hindered its ability to generate on-board electric power.
For three days, the world collectively held its breath while the men on board, and the support crew on the ground worked feverishly and frantically on work-arounds and mitigation. I was in high-school at the time, and I remember those events, and the national and international obsession with them–more than half-a-century ago now–with great clarity. Everything stopped, as we all looked skyward and prayed for their safe return.
Fifty-four years ago today, after a harrowing few days, Apollo 13 and its crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
It was, as the current President of the United States might, rather feebly say, “a win.”
Indeed. An epic win. A win that united us around the world.
We could use a few more of them.
Those who weren’t alive at the time (probably most of you) might watch the Apollo 13 film. It’s not perfect, and contains some inaccuracies for the sake of artistic license, but it gets the zeitgeist exactly right.
PS: There’s a fascinating page on NASA’s website about the computer systems used in the Apollo missions. Here’s the main console display and keyboard from Apollo 13:
Glory be. Talk about leaps of faith. I’m not sure I’d trust that to take me to the moon and back. (It should probably be noted that the computer system didn’t fail.)
