Apollo 13 quotes

View Quote William 'Bill' Pogue: When I go up there on 19, I'm gonna take my entire collection of Johnny Cash along!

View Quote We have to find a way to make This (square LiOH canisters from the command module for scrubbing carbon dioxide ) fit into the hole for This (cylindrical LiOH canisters for the lunar module), using nothing but that (various odd materials on board the Aquarius).

View Quote Dick Cavett [talking about Jack Swigert]: He's the kind of guy they say has a girl in every port, he has that reputation. I think he may be kind of foolishly optimistic though, taking nylons and Hershey bars to the moon ...

View Quote (practicing for re-entry) Jim Lovell: What happened?
Jack Swigert: We came in too steep. We're dead.

View Quote Pete Conrad: Jim, you think it's too late for him to abort?
Jim Lovell: No, he still has time to get outta there, he just needs someone to wave him off. Pull up, Neil!

View Quote [Jim's daughter wants to go trick-or-treating as a hippie]
Barbara Lovell: Dad, can I please wear this?
Jim Lovell: Sure.
Marilyn Lovell: Jim!
Jim Lovell: No! No, absolutely not.

View Quote Marilyn Lovell: Naturally, it's 13. Why 13?
Jim Lovell: It comes after 12, hon.

View Quote Politician: Jim, people in my state are asking why we're continuing to fund this program now that we've beaten the Russians to the moon.
Jim Lovell: Imagine if Christopher Columbus came back from the New World, and no one returned in his footsteps.

View Quote Jim Lovell: Just a little while longer Freddo. Just a little while longer, we're gonna hit that water in the South Pacific. Open up that hatch. It's 80 degrees out there.
Fred Haise, Sr.: 80 degrees.

View Quote [Ken Mattingly is in the simulator trying to figure out Apollo 13's reentry procedure] Technician: Need a break, Ken?
Ken Mattingly: If they don't get one, I don't get one.

View Quote Chris Kraft: He specifically wanted a quote from a flight director.
Gene Kranz: Who wanted a quote?
Glynn Lunney: The President.
Gene Kranz: The President?
Deke Slayton: Nixon. He wants odds.
Gene Kranz: We are not losing the crew.
Chris Kraft: Gene, I gotta give him odds. Five to one against? Three to one?
Glynn Lunney: I don't think they're that good.
Gene Kranz: We are not losing those men!

View Quote Gene Kranz: Let's look at this thing from a... um, from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that's good?
Sy Liebergot (EECOM): I'll get back to you, Gene.

View Quote Henry Hurt: I, uh, I have a request from the news people.
Marilyn Lovell: Uh-huh?
Henry Hurt: They're out front here. They want to put a transmitter up on the lawn.
Marilyn Lovell: Transmitter?
Henry Hurt: Kind of a tower, for live broadcast.
Marilyn Lovell: I thought they didn't care about this mission. They didn't even run Jim's show.
Henry Hurt: Well, it's more dramatic now. Suddenly people are...
Marilyn Lovell: Landing on the moon wasn't dramatic enough for them - why should not landing on it be?
Henry Hurt: Look, I, um, I realize how hard this is, Marilyn, but the whole world is caught up in this, it's historic-...
Marilyn Lovell: No, Henry! Those people don't put one piece of equipment on my lawn. If they have a problem with that, they can take it up with my husband. He'll be home... on Friday!

View Quote [As everyone is madly trying to identify the problem from instrument readings]
Jim Lovell: Houston, we are venting something out into space. I can see it outside window one right now. It's definitely a... a gas of some sort.
[pause]
Jim Lovell: It's got to be the oxygen.

View Quote Gene Kranz: EECOM, is this an instrumentation problem, or are we looking at real power loss here?
Sy Liebergot: It's, it's reading a quadruple failure - that can't happen! It's, it's got to be instrumentation.