Margaret Hamilton, the Software Pioneer Whose Tower of Apollo Code Became an Iconic Photo, Dies at 90

Margaret Hamilton, whose software helped Apollo 11 land on the Moon and whose towering stack of code became iconic, has died aged 90 (Credit: Draper Laboratory, restored by Adam Cuerden/Wikimedia Commons)

Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist whose software helped guide Apollo 11 to the Moon, died on 30 September 2026 at the age of 90. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Earlham College announced her death.

Born in Paoli, Indiana, in 1936, Hamilton joined MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory in 1965 as the first programmer and first female programmer hired for its Apollo project. She later led the development of onboard flight software, overseeing work by a team of more than 400 people.