Margaret Hamilton, whose software helped land Apollo astronauts on the moon, has died
Her code and leadership helped Apollo 11 land safely on the Moon, and she later popularized the term software engineering.
- The Massachusetts Institute of Technology confirmed on October 8 the death of Margaret Hamilton, the pioneering software engineer who led Apollo missions' on-board flight software development. She was 90 and died on September 30; the cause was not disclosed.
- Hamilton joined the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory in 1965 and led a team of 100 engineers designing guidance software for NASA's Apollo missions, work that established her as a founder of the professional field of 'software engineering.'
- During the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, Hamilton's software overrode an errant radar command three minutes before landing, an intervention NASA said "permitted the mission to safely continue." She also introduced a failsafe called "the Lauren error."
- In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Hamilton the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contributions to science, recognizing earlier honors including NASA's 2003 Exceptional Space Act Award.
- Draper Laboratory CEO Jerry Wohletz said Hamilton left an "indelible mark" through her leadership, helping ensure Apollo astronauts landed safely and returned home, cementing her legacy as a foundational figure in space exploration.
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Margaret Hamilton, pioneering MIT scientist who led a software team for NASA's Apollo program, dies at 90
Margaret Hamilton, a groundbreaking computer scientist who led the team that created the onboard flight software for NASA’s moon-bound Apollo program, has died. Her work helped make humanity’s first journeys to the moon possible.
Margaret Hamilton, scientist who worked on NASA's Apollo programme, dead at 90
American scientist Margaret Hamilton, who led development of the computer system used by NASA's Apollo lunar programme, has died at the age of 90, her former employer said Wednesday. In a statement, the Massachussetts Institute of Technology called Hamilton, who taught at the prestigious university from 1959 to the mid-1970s, a "computing pioneer" and said she died on September 30. We’ve lost an icon. Margaret Hamilton, a computer science pionee…
The story of man's landing on the moon included a woman's coding. Her software played a crucial role when the Apollo 11 mission's computer triggered an alarm. Margaret Hamilton, the software pioneer on this historic mission, has passed away.
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