Apollo 13 quotes

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 [as they pass over the lunar surface]
Fred Haise, Sr.: Mare Tranquilitatis - Neil and Buzz's old neighborhood. Coming up on Mount Marilyn. Jim, you've got to take a look at this.
Jim Lovell: I've seen it.

View Quote [Jack Swigert smacks his head on the L.E.M. ceiling]
Jack Swigert: OW! God damn this piece of shit!
Fred Haise: Hey! This piece of shit's gonna get you home. That's cause that's all we got left, Jack!
Jack Swigert: What are you saying, Fred?
Fred Haise: I think you know what I'm saying.
Jack Swigert: Now wait a minute. All I did was stir those tanks.
Fred Haise: What was that gauge reading before you hit the switch?
Jack Swigert: Don't tell me how to fly the damn C.M. --
Fred Haise: You don't even know, do you!?
Jack Swigert: -- they brought me in here to do a job, they asked me to stir the damn tanks and I stirred the tanks!
Jim Lovell: Jack, stop kicking yourself in the ass.
Jack Swigert: This is NOT MY FAULT!
Jim Lovell: No one is saying it is. If I'm in the left-hand seat when the call comes up, I stir the tanks.
Jack Swigert: Yeah, well, tell HIM [Haise] that.
Fred Haise: I just asked you what the gauge was reading. And YOU DON'T KNOW!
Jim Lovell: All right gentlemen, we're not gonna do this. We're not gonna go bouncing off the walls for ten minutes, because we're just gonna end up right back here with the same problems! Try to figure out how to stay alive!

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 [Swigert has just successfully powered up the Command Module]
Jack Swigert: Uplink completed. We got her back up, Ken. Boy, I wish you were here to see it.
Ken Mattingly: I'll bet you do.

View Quote [The crew has been "killed" in a simulator accident]
Jim Lovell: Well, if I had a dollar for every time they killed me in this thing, I wouldn't have to work for you, Deke. We have two days, and we'll be ready.

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

View Quote [After everyone applauds his new Apollo 13 vest] Save it for splashdown, guys.

View Quote [Apollo 13's center engine cuts out right after liftoff] Looks like we just had our glitch for this mission.

View Quote [explaining why he put a "NO" sign on the instrument panel] I was getting a little punchy and I didn't want to cut the LEM loose with you guys still in it.

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 [looking at the fogged-up instrument panels] It's like tryin' to drive a toaster through a car wash.

View Quote [On the night of the Apollo 11 landing] Christopher Columbus, Charles Lindbergh, and Neil Armstrong. Ha, ha, ha. Neil Armstrong!

View Quote Don't give me that NASA bullshit! I want to know what's happening with my husband!