Margaret Hamilton, who led the Apollo flight software team at MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory, died Sept. 30 at age 90, MIT announced Oct. 7.
Hamilton worked at MIT from 1959 into the mid-1970s. She moved to Boston in 1959 and began programming weather prediction software for meteorologist Edward Lorenz before working on the SAGE air-defense system at Lincoln Laboratory.
At the Instrumentation Laboratory in Cambridge, she led teams responsible for the onboard software of Apollo's lunar module and command and service module. During Apollo 11's 1969 landing, the software's priority system allowed the computer to put essential landing work ahead of lower-priority tasks when it became overloaded.
Her career also included consulting on NASA's Skylab and space shuttle programs, according to MIT's account of her work published in 2016. The Instrumentation Laboratory became the independent Draper organization in 1973.
Hamilton later founded software businesses. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 for her contributions to software engineering.
MIT said a memorial celebration is planned in Cambridge in the spring.