THE CRUNCH
Margaret Hamilton, who led development of the on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program and is credited with coining the term "software engineering", died last week at the age of 90. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 in recognition of work that helped make the Moon landings possible.
Born in Paoli, Indiana in 1936, Hamilton graduated from Earlham College in 1958 with a mathematics degree and a minor in philosophy. She joined MIT's effort to build the Apollo guidance software at a time when the discipline barely existed, writing advanced code herself while leading a team that produced what Olivier de Weck, interim head of MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, called one of the most complex systems humanity had ever achieved.
Her cultural footprint extended beyond the mission: in 2017 she appeared as a LEGO minifig in the "Women of NASA" set, alongside astronauts Mae Jemison and Sally Ride. De Weck said that calling her a pioneer would be "a dramatic understatement" and described her as a fundamental contributor to the Apollo program's success.