Minute 051: Houston, We Have a Problem

Jack Swigert is completing several housekeeping tasks on Odyssey. “And then,” says CAPCOM, “if you could give your oxygen tanks a stir…” “Roger that,” says Swigert. EECOM puffs his pipe and looks at his console. Swigert toggles the O2 switches 1 and 2 to ON. Deep inside the Service Module, a wire burns and splits. There is a rumble, and suddenly alarm buzzers are sounding. Swigert looks at his console. Lovell looks down the LM tunnel. Haise looks at the wall of the LM. On the Service Module, rivets pops. A panel explodes and blows off the side of the ship. Haise is hammered against the docking latch. A MASTER ALARM warning flashes on the CM console. “Hey, we’ve got a problem here,” says Swigert. Lovell climbs up out of the tunnel into Odyssey, and looks at Swigert. “What did you do?” asks Lovell. “Nothing!” says Swigert, “I stirred the tanks.” In Houston, the consoles blank momentarily , and are filled with gibberish on their screens. “Whoa!” says TELMU. Kranz looks at the nonsense display, and glances at CAPCOM. “This is Houston,” says CAPCOM, “Say again, please?” “Houston,” says Lovell, “We have a problem.” IN THIS MINUTE: Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks Jack Swigert: Kevin Bacon Fred Haise: Bill Paxton Gene Kranz: Ed Harris EECOM White Team: Clint Howard TELMU White Team: Jim Meskimen CAPCOM: Brett Cullen