Pioneer of Apollo software dies

Margaret Hamilton, who led the team that created onboard flight software for NASA's Apollo moon program, has died at ninety.

Death in Cambridge

Hamilton died September thirtieth at a hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her daughter Lauren Hamilton told the Associated Press on Thursday.

Software engineer ahead of her time

Olivier de Weck, Apollo program professor at MIT, said Hamilton was a software engineer when the field was in its infancy and led a team developing one of humanity's most complex systems.

“She was a software engineer at a time when that field was in its infancy”

From obscurity to recognition

A photo of Hamilton standing next to towering stacks of code circulated online. A Lego set celebrating women of NASA included her figure in two thousand seventeen.

Mathematics to the moon

Hamilton graduated with a mathematics degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, in nineteen fifty-eight and joined MIT in nineteen fifty-nine.

Freedom to pioneer

Hamilton told MIT News in two thousand nine that upper management gave her team total freedom and trust because software was a mystery. We had to find a way, and we did, she said.

“Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust”

Quiet strength in a sexist field

Lauren Hamilton said her mother encountered sexism in her field but did not respond aggressively. She would disarm people with her sense of humor or just kind of dominate quietly.

“She would disarm people with her sense of humor or … just kind of dominate quietly”

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Hamilton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in two thousand sixteen from President Barack Obama.