#003 · Women in TechIconicLocked in
Apollo Guidance Software
The code that landed Apollo 11, and the phrase software engineering
Rating
96Impact score
Technical depth96
Went first97
Openness86
Influence95
Domains
Flight softwareFault toleranceSoftware engineering
Scouting report
Led the team that wrote the Apollo onboard flight software at MIT, including the priority scheduling that let the guidance computer shed lower-priority work during the 1202 alarms three minutes before the lunar landing rather than fail. She coined the term software engineering, partly to get the discipline taken seriously.
Curator’s note
The landing happened because her code knew what to drop under load.
Sources
- 01Margaret Hamilton en.wikipedia.org
- 02Apollo Guidance Computer source github.com