What was the actual quote that Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert said to mission control in Houston?

"Houston, we have a problem" is a popular but erroneous quotation from the radio communications between the Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Mission Control Center in Houston during the Apollo 13 spaceflight in 1970, as the astronauts communicated their discovery of the explosion that crippled their spacecraft.

The words actually spoken, initially by Jack Swigert, were "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here". After being prompted to repeat the transmission by CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) Jack R. Lousma, Jim Lovell responded, "Ah, Houston, we've had a problem.

Since then, the erroneous phrase "Houston, we have a problem" has become popular, being used to account, informally, for the emergence of an unforeseen problem, often with a sense of ironic understatement. In the 1995 film :Apollo 13", the actual quote was shortened to "Houston, we have a problem". Screenwriter William Broyles Jr. made the change, stating that the verb tense actually used "wasn't as dramatic". Broyles and American University linguist Naomi S. Baron said the actual line spoken would not work well in a suspense movie. The quote ranked at No. 50 on AFI's (American Film Institute) 100 Greatest Movie Quotes in June 2005.