Question About "Failure Is Not An Option"

[laurel]

This is a really trivial question, but does anyone know why Gene Kranz used the line, "Houston, we have a problem," when he was writing about Apollo 13? Wasn't the actual line, "Houston, we've had a problem"?

I thought maybe he remembered it wrong; he obviously has an excellent memory to write such a detailed book, but nobody remembers everything perfectly. Maybe he heard it wrong at the time since the flight controllers were also talking to him and the communications from the astronauts were not always clear. Maybe he thought his audience would be more familiar with the movie line. Maybe some editor changed things in the book and Kranz had nothing to do with it.

I'm not an HB and I really enjoyed reading this book last year. I'm just curious about this one thing and I wondered if anyone more familiar with the background of the book could answer my question.

[JayUtah]

I've been thinking about this ever since the same question was posted to IMDB. I'm afraid the only real answer I can think of is to defer to Mr. Kranz; I really don't know why he did that.

There were actually two reports over the radio within a few seconds of each other, both referring to having had a problem. I recall that Swigert reported it, then Lovell reported it again a few seconds later. The wording was slightly different.

Quotations tend to normalize over time to their more easily remembered versions, regardless of the actual wording. Shakespeare and the Bible are particularly good candidates. "Houston, we have a problem" qualifies as an historic and memorable quote, which means it's well on its way to habitual misquotation.

I can imagine a conference between Kranz and his editor in which the more familiar, but inaccurate version is decided upon. That may be what happened, if it was indeed intentional.

[RAF]

jayutah said:

There were actually two reports over the radio within a few seconds of each other, both referring to having had a problem. I recall that Swigert reported it, then Lovell reported it again a few seconds later. The wording was slightly different.

I can't recall without listening, (and I could be wrong) but didn't Swigert use "we", while Lovell used "we've"?

(Guess I should just listen to 13's transmissions and find out.

[RAF]

OK...my memory was in error.

From what I can hear, Swigart says "Houston, we've had a problem, here", and Lovell when asked to "say again" says "Houston, we've had a problem here" although it is kinda hard to tell...

...of course that doesn't answer the OP's question...

[Jason]

Maybe because "we've had a problem" could be read as "we had a problem but it is over now" wheras "we have a problem" is unmistakeably in the present tense.

[laurel]

jason said:

Maybe because "we've had a problem" could be read as "we had a problem but it is over now" wheras "we have a problem" is unmistakeably in the present tense.

Yeah, it's a good way to show urgency. I think that was why they changed it for the film.