Legendary woman whose code helped save the moon landing dies

Margaret Hamilton died September 30 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 90, according to MIT News. At MIT’s Instrumentation Laboratory, she led the team developing onboard flight software for NASA’s Apollo missions. Her guiding principle was simple but essential: systems must anticipate problems, not assume perfection. During Apollo 11’s lunar descent, computer overload alarms tested that approach. The software preserved critical operations while setting less urgent tasks aside, allowing the astronauts to proceed with Mission Control’s approval.