Skip to the content Lots of Light Bulb Moments Science Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. “Houston, we have a problem” may be the most famous line in the annals of spaceflight. That’s what Tom Hanks, playing astronaut Jim Lovell, says in the movie Apollo 13. In reality, astronaut Jack Swigert said “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” words then repeated by Lovell. (Whatever.