Margaret Hamilton, pioneer behind Apollo 11 software, dies at 90

Visionary computer scientist Margaret Hamilton, whose team wrote the onboard software that guided the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, passed away on Sunday at the age of 90.

MIT confirmed her death, noting that Hamilton worked there from 1959 until the mid‑1970s and led the Software Engineering Division that developed the flight control code for the United States’ first lunar landing. The software, described as “priority‑driven,” was designed to shut down background tasks when the onboard computer overloaded, allowing the critical landing algorithms to run unimpeded.

In 2016 President Barack Obama awarded Hamilton the Presidential Medal of Freedom, calling her a symbol of the generation of women who quietly enabled the Space Age. McCain’s work laid the foundation for what would later be formalised as the discipline of software engineering.

Hamilton earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Earlham College in 1958 and later pursued a career that blended research and entrepreneurship, founding Hamilton Technologies in the 1970s. The company remains based in Massachusetts and carries on her legacy in aerospace software.

She is survived by her daughter, son‑in‑law, two grandsons and four great‑grandchildren, as reported by MIT. Her pioneering spirit continues to inspire generations of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.