Margaret Hamilton (1936–2026)

[Orionid]

Margaret Hamilton (17.08.1936–30.09.2026) [90]

Kierowała zespołem inżynierii oprogramowania w MIT’s Instrumentation Lab w ramach programu Apollo NASA.

1968 została szefową zespołu, który stworzył oprogramowanie pokładowe dla programu Apollo.

Została pierwszą kobietą programistką w programie Apollo.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin 2:04 AM · Oct 8, 2026
Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer whose work helped make Apollo and humanity’s first journeys to the Moon possible. The best way to honor her legacy is to finally pick up where her generation left off and never stop going.

https://twitter.com/NASAAdmin/status/2107985433514975419

Margaret Hamilton, computing pioneer who led software development for the Apollo program, dies at 90
Janine Liberty | Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Publication Date: October 7, 2026

Over two decades at MIT, Hamilton forged new paths in computer science and engineering. Her groundbreaking work included leading the team that programmed the first computers that took humans to the moon. (...)
https://news.mit.edu/2026/margaret-hamilton-computing-pioneer-dies-1007

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_(software_engineer)

[Orionid]

Margaret Hamilton, whose software helped land Apollo 11 on the Moon, dies at 90
1 day ago Claire Keenan


Hamilton with the printed computer code in 1969

The computer scientist behind groundbreaking research that helped land Nasa's astronauts on the Moon, has died aged 90.

Margaret Hamilton was a trailblazer in her field, leading the team who developed the software for Nasa's Apollo missions, which coined the term "software engineering". (...)

"I was attracted both by the sheer idea and the fact that it had never been done before. I was the first programmer to join and the first woman they hired," she told the Guardian in 2019.

In 1969, moments before the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing, an onboard computer raised an alarm, signalling an error was occurring.

The error detected the computer was overloaded, and for a moment it looked like the complex landing might not be achieved.

But Hamilton and her team had planned for such an error by engineering "priority-driven software" to shut down any background tasks and favour the most important - the Moon landing - according to MIT.

The team's famous software engineering was immortalised in a 1969 photograph of Hamilton standing beside the stack of printed code that towered beside her.

In 2016, Hamilton's life work was honoured by Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to science and space travel. (...)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx5yn46j41zpo

Margaret Hamilton obituary
Mick O'Hare Sun 18 Oct 2026 12.43 CEST

Pioneering software engineer whose work was critical to the Apollo moon landings

(...) Hamilton found work in the meteorology department of MIT, where her first role was developing weather-prediction software, alongside Edward Lorenz, the mathematician and meteorologist and founder of modern chaos theory. Her talent immediately became apparent and she was assigned work on the US air-defence systems before, in 1965, responding to an advert from the Instrumentation Laboratory – also a department of MIT – seeking people to develop software to send humans to the moon.

She was successful, becoming the first programmer for Apollo at MIT, and, of more significance, the first woman working on the project. Within three years she was made assistant director, and soon after became director of the team of about 100. (...)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/oct/18/margaret-hamilton-obituary