“Houston, we have a problem.” Those five words, transmitted from space after an on-board explosion 55 hours into NASA’s 1970 Apollo 13 mission, echoed around the world, captivating more than 40 million Americans who watched on TV as the three orbiting astronauts accomplished the seemingly impossible: safely returning to Earth.
What most people didn’t realize at the time was that the on-the-ground crew was well-suited for the crisis. Every step that ensured the astronauts’ safety was guided by a small, cross-disciplinary unit of NASA experts — eventually dubbed a “tiger team” — that was quickly assembled to devise makeshift strategies and engineering workarounds to preserve enough oxygen, water and electricity to save the imperiled trio in the damaged capsule.
Their resounding success earned the team a Presidential Medal of Freedom, was immortalized by a heart-stopping Tom Hanks film, and is inspiring a new generation of problem-solvers — including Denver Mayor Mike Johnston — who are adapting the tiger team model to tackle some of their cities’ most intractable challenges.
