Space conquest: Margaret Hamilton, key figure in the race to the Moon, is dead

The world has lost a great name in space conquest. American scientist who led the development of the computer system used by the Apollo lunar program, Margaret Hamilton has died, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she worked for nearly twenty years, announced on Wednesday.

The tribute from the head of NASA

“Margaret Hamilton, an influential computer scientist known for leading the computer system development team at MIT during NASA's Apollo program, died on September 30. She was 90 years old,” the prestigious institution wrote on its website.

The head of NASA, Jared Isaacman, praised on X a “pioneer whose work helped make the Apollo program and man’s first trips to the Moon possible”. “The best way to honor his legacy is to pick up where his generation left off and never stop moving forward.”

The famous Apollo program allowed the Americans to beat the Soviet Union during the first race to the Moon, in the 1960s and 1970s. The NASA mission Artemis 3, which is to send astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972, is scheduled for 2027, after several delays.

Mathematics studies

Born in 1936 in Indiana, Margaret Hamilton studied mathematics before working in the meteorology department at MIT, then on the first American air defense system. In 1965, she applied to a university laboratory, “the Instrumentation Lab”, specializing in the design of aeronautical instruments and then looking for experts to develop a computer program to “send a man to the Moon”. “Intrigued by this challenge,” Margaret Hamilton “was hired as the first Apollo programmer at MIT, becoming the first female programmer on the project,” the university said in the press release paying tribute to her.

An emblematic figure of women scientists

In 1968, she led the team responsible for developing the software for the lunar program. Eight years later, in 1976, Margaret Hamilton left MIT to found her own computer company.

Our articles on the Conquest of Space

Having become an emblematic figure of women scientists, she is particularly known to the general public thanks to a photo representing her, round glasses and a big smile, next to a pile of computer code the size of her.