In this episode of pplpod, we dive into the life of Margaret Hamilton, the pioneering computer scientist who led the development of the on-board flight software for NASA’s Apollo program. We trace her journey from her early work at MIT—where her programming contributed to the foundations of chaos theory—to her critical role as the Director of the Software Engineering Division at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory,.

Listeners will learn how Hamilton’s innovative "priority display" system averted a mission abort during the Apollo 11 lunar descent, allowing the computer to manage overloaded tasks and giving astronauts the "go" signal to land despite unexpected alarms,. We also explore how she fought to legitimize her field by coining the term "software engineering" and her later success founding businesses like Hamilton Technologies,. Join us to celebrate the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom whose code took humanity to the stars.