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Margaret Hamilton, Apollo Software Pioneer, Dies at 90
Margaret Hamilton helped create the computer software used in NASA’s Apollo Moon program.
She began working on the project at MIT in 1965.
MIT said she was Apollo’s first programmer and the project’s first female programmer.
By 1968, she was helping lead a large team working on the software.
That software was part of the effort that made Apollo’s lunar missions possible.
Hamilton later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
She also started two software companies and wrote more than 130 papers.
She died at 90, MIT said.
Margaret Hamilton, who led development of software for NASA’s Apollo lunar program, has died at 90.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said she died on September 30.
Hamilton joined an MIT lab working on Apollo software in 1965 and was the project’s first programmer and first female programmer.
By 1968, she was an assistant director overseeing the Apollo Command and Service Module team, with more than 400 people working on Apollo software.
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 and later founded two software companies.
- Who
- Margaret Hamilton, an American computer scientist and Apollo software leader.
- What
- She died at age 90; she led development of software for NASA’s Apollo lunar program.
- Where
- The article says Hamilton was born in Indiana and later worked at MIT in Massachusetts.
- When
- MIT said she died on September 30; the article does not specify the year.
- Why
- The article does not state a cause of death.
Key facts
- Age
- 90
- Date of death
- September 30; year not specified in the article
- Apollo work
- Joined an MIT lab developing Apollo software in 1965
- Team leadership
- By 1968, assistant director in charge of the Command and Service Module team
- Apollo software team
- More than 400 people were working on Apollo software by 1968, according to MIT
- Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Awarded in 2016
- Publications and companies
- Published more than 130 papers and founded Higher Order Software and Hamilton Technologies
Quotes
Margaret Hamilton
Computer scientist and Apollo software leader.
“There was no second chance. We knew that. We took our work seriously, many of us beginning this journey while still in our 20s.”
deccanchronicle.com
“Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.”
deccanchronicle.com
Olivier de Weck
Apollo Program Professor and interim head of MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“To say Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer -- to say she was ahead of her time -- would be a dramatic understatement.”
deccanchronicle.com
Sources
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