“Okay, Houston we’ve had a problem here. This is Houston, say it again please. Uh, Houston we’ve had a problem.” That 7 seconds of audio has been immortalized throughout time, history, and culture. Even if that was your first time hearing the original audio, you’ve definitely heard the quote “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” That’s astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of NASA’s Apollo 13 mission to the moon in 1970. But did you know the context of that quote? What the actual problem is? Did you know just how close Apollo 13 came to being the worst disaster in the history of space exploration? Let’s fix that. 

Sources: 

• YouTube video (7 minutes) by NASA "Apollo 13: 'Houston We've Had a Problem'"
• YouTube video "Apollo 13 Re-entry and Splashdown" Live Video Footage (10 minutes)
• Institute of Physics "How do we know that we went to the moon?"
• Short History of podcast episode "Apollo 13"
• NASA "Apollo 13 Accident"
• Encyclopedia Britannica "Apollo 13 Re-entry and Splashdown"
• Smithsonian Magazine "How the Crew of the Damaged Apollo 13 Came Home"
• NASA Apollo 13 audio archive

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