555 Technology Square, Cambridge

Charles Stark Draper founded the Aeronautical Instrumentation Laboratory at MIT in 1932, and in 1973 the lab was spun out independent nonprofit under Draper’s name. For eight decades, it has played a pivotal role in the development of guidance and control systems for aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles—but its most famous exploit by far was the creation of the Apollo guidance system that helped American astronauts fly to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s. A giant model of the moon hanging in the company’s atrium commemorates the 50th anniversary of that accomplishment.

Guest speaker

Peter Kachmar, Systems Engineer, Draper Laboratory