'Software Engineering' Pioneer Margaret Hamilton, Who Wrote Apollo 11 Code, Dies Aged 90

Apollo 11 software leader Margaret Hamilton dies aged 90, leaving a major legacy in software engineering and spaceflight (Credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons)

Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist who led the software team that helped land Apollo 11 on the Moon and helped define 'software engineering' as a field, has died aged 90, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has confirmed.

She was hired as the first programmer on the Apollo project at the university and the first female programmer on the project, MIT said.