Apollo Software Pioneer Margaret Hamilton Dies at Age 90

Margaret Hamilton, whose pioneering software steered the Apollo missions to the moon, has died at 90.

Margaret Hamilton, a trailblazing computer scientist whose software guided the Apollo moon missions, has died at the age of 90. She led the software development team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that made the historic lunar landings possible. Her pioneering work later earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

• The roleShe directed the software engineering division for the Apollo flight computer.
• The honorPresident Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
• The legacyHer foundational error-detection architecture prevented aborts during the Apollo 11 moon landing.