Pioneering software engineer whose work was critical to the Apollo moon landings
Apollo was a bold, innovative project. It tested the boundaries of technology and human achievement, and took people to the moon. However, one thing it failed to challenge was the prevailing hierarchy. Nearly everyone involved in Nasa’s space programme in the 1960s was male and white. If you weren’t, you needed to be exceptional at what you did.
Margaret Hamilton, who has died aged 90, was one of those exceptional people. Without her input, sending spacecraft into lunar orbit, and putting Neil Armstrong and his successors on to the surface of the moon, might have been impossible.