Word.ws English Dictionary

Houston, we have a problem

Syllables: Hous·ton, we have a prob·lemUK/ˈh(j)uːst(ə)n ˌwiː hæv ə ˈpɹɒbləm/US/ˈ(h)justən ˌwi hæv ə ˈpɹɑbləm/

Houston, we have a problem phrase: used to report that a (major) problem has occurred.

Phrase

Houston, we have a problem

  1. (US, humorous) Used to report that a (major) problem has occurred.
    • Houston, we have a problem. We're running out of oil! The petroleum that fuels our daily lives is getting harder to find.2002, Dan Ramsey, Complete Idiot’s Guide to Solar Power for Your Home (Complete Idiot’s Guide), Indianapolis, Ind.: Alpha Books, →ISBN, page xvii
    • My own contribution for the BBC London headline at the time was: "Euston, we have a problem."2025 November 12, Tom Edwards, “Tackling the 'Euston Rush'”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 32

Origin of Houston, we have a problem

A misquotation of the phrases “Houston, we’ve had a problem here” and “Houston, we’ve had a problem” said by the American astronauts Jim Lovell (1928–2025) and Jack Swigert (1931–1982), who were crew members of the Apollo 13 moon flight, to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, on April 13, 1970, after an oxygen tank triggered an explosion which led to the mission being aborted. The phrase in the form “Houston, we have a problem” was popularized by the film Apollo 13 (1995). The American screenwriter William Broyles Jr. (born 1944) altered the original phrases as he felt that “[t]he past perfect tense wasn’t as dramatic”. However, the phrase has been used earlier, for example, as the title of a 1974 television movie about the Apollo 13 mission.

Questions about Houston, we have a problem

What does Houston, we have a problem mean?
Houston, we have a problem means used to report that a (major) problem has occurred.
What part of speech is Houston, we have a problem?
Houston, we have a problem is a phrase.
How do you pronounce Houston, we have a problem?
Houston, we have a problem is pronounced /ˈh(j)uːst(ə)n ˌwiː hæv ə ˈpɹɒbləm/ (UK).

Words near Houston, we have a problem in the dictionary

  1. housties
  2. Houston
  3. Houston black
  4. Houston blacks
  5. Houston County
  6. Houston, we have a problem
  7. Houstoner
  8. Houstoners
  9. houstonia
  10. Houstonian
  11. Houstonians

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Houston, we have a problem (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-Houston, we have a problem.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Houston, we have a problem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/houston%2C_we_have_a_problem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.