Here is a little flashback from the past: working in NASA, inventing the worldwide term “software engineering”, making the Apollo 11 land on the moon – and all this in the 60s, while being a woman, a wife and a mother. Well, this just sounds like some science fiction piece from the 60s, doesn’t it? Let me guide you on a short trip through time and space with a wonder woman of her time, Margaret Hamilton – NASA code-cracker and an entrepreneur of several software companies.
NASA, here I come
“One thing led to another, and she was asked to join the Apollo project. What was the first thought in her head? “WOW. I’ve got to go there.””
It was 1960 and Margaret was 24-years-old. She already had a degree in math, a husband (pursuing his law degree in Harvard) and a daughter. While waiting for her husband to finish his school so she herself could go back to study abstract math, Hamilton found a job in MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, yes, that shiny one for math geniuses) to support her family and worked with a great mathematician, Edward Lorenz (a.k.a. the father of chaos theory). One thing led to another, and she was asked to join the Apollo project. What was the first thought in her head? “WOW. I’ve got to go there.”
What do we name it? Or the Wild West, called “Software”
“All the men around were working with hardware engineering. What did Hamilton do? She and her colleagues were inventing the core ideas of computer programming while writing the code for the world’s the first portable computer.”
All the men around were working with hardware engineering. What did Hamilton do? She and her colleagues were inventing the core ideas of computer programming while writing the code for the world’s the first portable computer. She said: “When I first got into it, nobody knew what it was that we were doing. It was like the Wild West.” She then came up with the term “Software engineering” to distinguish it from hardware and all other kinds of engineering, to get it the deserved respect. It sounded like a joke for a while at “the office”, though the catchy name made it through.
Nobody’s perfect. Even astronauts
“Fortunately, Hamilton had programmed the computer to prioritize tasks according to importance not sequence, making the landing the highest priority task. And so they did. The Eagle has landed.”
Margaret Hamilton was a great example to her daughter – she used to take her to work at nights and at the weekends. While Hamilton programmed all along – she was responsible for the onboard flight software on the Apollo computers – the “mini me” would play an astronaut. And one of those play times, she accidentally started and crashed the simulation. The computer couldn’t handle the human mistake and lost the navigation data. Hamilton immediately suggested correcting the program before launching the Apollo. Though the answer was no. “We had been told many times that astronauts would not make any mistakes. They were trained to be perfect.” – Hamilton remembered. And oh, how wrong they were. It happened on Apollo 8. By the astronaut. And guess, who saved the day? Yes, Hamilton. She also did the same thing with Apollo 11 – the one which landed on the Moon. When the computer was overloaded with commands and just couldn’t handle the hype, it was the moment of “go or no go”. Fortunately, Hamilton had programmed the computer to prioritize tasks according to the importance, not the sequence, making the landing the highest priority task. And so they did. The Eagle has landed.
A Medal from Obama, personal Lego and Hamilton Technologies
“The first human travel to the Moon couldn’t happen without this extraordinary woman, who just happened to love her job and was driven by it in the field where women were a minority, in the times, when they also were still supposed to be housewives. ”
Having that entrepreneurial gene, in 1972 Hamilton started her own company, Higher Order Software. Then she did it again, fourteen years later, naming it Hamilton Technologies. To the bouquet of her achievements, NASA awarded her with Exceptional Space Act Award in 2003, granting her the biggest ever financial prize to one person (well done, Margaret!). Even President Obama felt the urge to praise Hamilton – in 2016 he awarded her with the Medal of Freedom, and his words were more than true: “Her example speaks of the American spirit of discovery that exists in every little girl and little boy who know that somehow to look beyond the heavens is to look deep within ourselves.” I would add that the spirit of discovery belongs to all humankind.
And last but not the least – in 2017 Margaret Hamilton became a true legend in the world of Lego – a Lego Margaret Hamilton action figure was made as part of the Women of NASA collection. Can it get cooler than this? I don’t think so.
The first human travel to the Moon couldn’t happen without this extraordinary woman, who just happened to love her job and was driven by it in the field where women were a minority, in the times, when they also were still supposed to be housewives. Margaret Hamilton made the Sci-Fi scenario become real for all of us.
She is a true inspiration and we can only be grateful for her significant spirit.
