 The famous understatement was actually made twice by two astronauts.  Jack Swigert (qv) said, "OK Houston, weve had a problem here."  Mission Control said, "This is Houston. Say again, please." Then  Jim Lovell (qv) said, "Ahh, Houston, weve had a problem." On the  recording, Swigert is garbled at the beginning, while Lovell is  clear, so the recording of Lovell is often heard, leading to the  impression he said it, even though Swigert said it first. Its  commonly misquoted as, "Houston, weve got a problem," or "Houston,  we have a problem." Because "weve had" implies the problem has  passed, Ron Howard (qv) chose to use "we have".