Margaret Hamilton Led the NASA Software Team That Landed Astronauts on the Moon

Margaret Hamilton was a pioneering software engineer who played a crucial role in the success of NASA's Apollo missions. She was hired by MIT to work on the Apollo project and became head of her own team, writing and testing software for the mission's computers. Hamilton's innovative approach to software development led to the creation of programs that could adapt to unknown problems and flexible enough to interrupt one task to take on a more important one. Her work also allowed for the correction of errors made by astronauts, including Jim Lovell during Apollo 8's moon-orbiting flight. Hamilton received numerous awards for her contributions, including the NASA Exceptional Space Act Award in 2003 and the Medal of Freedom in 2016.