Apollo Software Pioneer Margaret Hamilton Dies at 90

Margaret Hamilton died September 30 at age 90, MIT confirmed; the cause of death was not disclosed. She joined MIT in 1959, worked there until the mid-1970s, and led the software development division at the Instrumentation Laboratory after it secured NASA's Apollo contract in 1961. She led a team of about 100 engineers, later over 400 by 1968, developing Apollo flight software that handled a computer alarm during the 1969 Apollo 11 landing. She coined the term software engineering, authored more than 130 publications, became a computing entrepreneur and CEO after leaving MIT, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2016, who referenced the 1969 alarm. Olivier de Weck said calling her a pioneer would be a dramatic understatement: she developed advanced code and led work on one of the most complex systems humanity had ever achieved, then continued as entrepreneur, advocate, mentor, and inspiration. Obama said her software architecture helped America set foot on the moon. In 2009 Hamilton told MIT News the software work was at least as exciting as the mission events, with no second chance and total freedom from management because software was a black box. Rated outlets show no material disagreements on the core record.