Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist who led the team that developed the onboard flight software for NASA's Apollo missions, has died at age 90.

Margaret Hamilton, a pioneering computer scientist whose software was instrumental in the success of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, has died at the age of 90. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where Hamilton managed the Software Engineering Division, confirmed that she passed away on September 30. Hamilton is widely recognized for her role in developing the priority-driven software that ensured the safety of the Apollo missions.

Pioneering Software Engineering

Hamilton began her career at MIT in 1959, eventually leading the team responsible for writing and testing the onboard flight software for NASA's Apollo project. During this era, she helped coin the term "software engineering" before the profession became mainstream. She was the first programmer to join the project and the first woman hired for the team, later founding her own companies, including Hamilton Technologies.

The Apollo 11 Emergency

During the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, an onboard computer alarm signaled an overload just minutes before the lunar landing. The software, designed by Hamilton and her team, successfully compensated for the error by shutting down non-essential background tasks to prioritize the landing. This recovery mechanism allowed the spacecraft to continue its mission safely, a feat later highlighted when Barack Obama awarded Hamilton the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.