Goodbye to Margaret Hamilton: the scientist who saved the Moon landing (leading the Apollo 11 team) has died at 90 years old

The world of science mourns the passing of Margaret Hamiltondied on September 30 at the age of 90 years old in Cambridge, Massachusetts, although the news was only released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now. Born in Paoli, Indiana, in 1936 and graduating from Earlham College with a degree in mathematics after studying at the University of Michigan, the scientist began working at MIT in 1959initially dealing with weather forecasts before forever linking his name to the history of space exploration.

The start of his legendary career at MIT

In 1965 entered the space programbecoming the first woman hired as a programmer on a mission of this magnitude and assuming leadership of the Software Engineering Division of the Instrumentation Laboratory. At the head of a team of around 100 engineers, the researcher accepted the arduous challenge of design the electronic brain of the Apollo Guidance Computereffectively coining the term software engineering to give equal academic dignity to a discipline that at the time was mistakenly considered a secondary task and entrusted mainly to women.

Saving the historic moon landing

The engineering masterpiece created by Margaret Hamilton found its definitive consecration on July 20, 1969during the dramatic moments that preceded the first human landing on our satellite. Alone 3 minutes after the Apollo 11 lander touchdownthe on-board computer began issuing a series of critical alarms due to a dangerous overload caused by the sudden activation of the re-entry radar.

Thanks to the extraordinary intuition of having designed a system based on priority management and the ability to ignore non-essential tasks in case of data conflicts, the software he brilliantly circumvented the total blockadeallowing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to complete the mission safely.

Winning the presidential medal

After the space epic, the mathematician founded his own company and received prestigious international tributes, including theExceptional Space Act Award of NASA in 2003 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to her by the President of the United States Barack Obama The November 22, 2016forever consecrating its fundamental role in the conquest of space in the twentieth century.

@The Obama White House