Margaret Hamilton, scientist who worked on NASA's Apollo program, dead at 90

In a statement, the Massachussetts Institute of Technology called Hamilton, who taught at the prestigious university from 1959 to the mid-1970s, a "computing pioneer" and said she died on September 30.

"To say Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer -- to say she was ahead of her time -- would be a dramatic understatement," said Olivier de Weck, the Apollo Program Professor and interim head of the MIT Department Aeronautics and Astronautics.

"She was a software engineer at a time when that field was in its infancy, and she not only developed advanced code herself but also led a team in using that nascent technology to develop one of the most complex systems humanity had ever achieved," Weck added.

The famed Apollo program allowed the United States to beat the Soviet Union in the race to become the first humans to land on the Moon.

NASA chief Jared Isaacmen paid tribute on X, calling Hamilton "a pioneer whose work helped make Apollo and humanity's first journeys to the moon possible."

Source: Citizen Digital