Woman coder, who helped land Apollo 11 on Moon, dies
What's the story
Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist whose software played a key role in the first-ever Moon landing, has passed away at the age of 90. Her death was confirmed by her former employer, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Hamilton died on September 30. She spent over two decades at MIT and contributed significantly to space exploration during her time there.
Career highlights
Hamilton's monumental work for NASA
Hamilton, who was born in Indiana, was instrumental in writing the computer code for the command and lunar modules used on Apollo missions.
She joined MIT in 1959 and led a team of 100 engineers after the institute won a NASA contract to develop onboard flight software for Apollo.
Hamilton is also credited as one of the founders of software engineering, which has now become widely recognized.
Awards and ventures
She received Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016
For her groundbreaking work, Hamilton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 by then-President Barack Obama. She has also authored over 130 publications.
After leaving MIT, she became a successful entrepreneur and CEO. In 1976, she founded Higher order software, her first company based on her work at MIT and the Apollo mission.
A decade later, she established another company called Hamilton Technologies.
Software innovation
Hamilton introduced 'Lauren error'
Hamilton is credited with making the Apollo spacecraft's software more robust and accident-resistant.
She introduced "Lauren error," a failsafe named after her daughter, to prevent an astronaut's hardware from crashing.
The system was inspired by her daughter's space simulation crash and could have had dire consequences in space.
Hamilton's contribution was especially highlighted just minutes before the Apollo 11 spacecraft was set to land on the Moon.
Mission success
How Hamilton saved the mission
The onboard computer of the Apollo 11 spacecraft indicated an emergency just before landing.
However, the software overrode the alarm, allowing the mission to continue safely.
"It quickly became clear the software was not only informing everyone that there was a hardware-related problem but was compensating for it - restarting and re-establishing the highest priority tasks," Hamilton had said later.