What an incredible rabbit hole. Margaret Hamilton, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for "[leading] the team that created the on-board flight software" for the Apollo missions, wasn't even hired until after the completed software had already flown to the moon in Apollo 8!
https://t.co/6F4dlFRCwp Here is where she says Dan Lickly put her in charge, in other sources you can learn that this happened after Apollo 8 (Dec 1968), and that she married him before Apollo 11
— nfinf (@nfinf5) February 25, 2023
A team of 400 men worked for years to create the software for the two Apollo AGCs. Sometime around the release date, Hamilton is hired and promoted *by her husband* from a beginner role to be in charge of command module software, on which her name does not appear until 1969.
The exact date of Hamilton's '68 entry level hire, and hasty promotion to software lead (both times by the man she married in '69) I haven't seen, but we know the first revision with her name is March 1969, months after the delivered product had gone to the moon.
Below is a contemporary source of Apollo computer hardware and software development personnel over the course of the program. The software is finalized and delivered in 1968, and flies to the moon in Apollo 8. The first release with Margaret Hamilton in charge is at the end.
What incredible "courage" of this guy to hand Apollo CM software leadership over to the junior programmer Margaret Hamilton, the only woman on the entire team of 400, whom he would completely coincidentally end up marrying the very next year!
"I've encountered no discrimination at all" says woman with same last name as the man who hired and promoted her. "Hamilton, Mrs. Dan Lickly": another women in tech success story.
The article completes the picture. 1968: Apollo software is done, transitions to bug fix mode, shrinks headcount, and is no longer a prestige project. The boss, Dan Likely, hires his soon-to-be wife, Margaret Hamilton, to take his place as he quits to start his own company.
Not only did Hamilton not lead Apollo software as implied, but her entire tenure in the program is suspect because 100% of it was arranged by her husband, who hired her, mentored her as she was given a small team, then promoted her immediately before their marriage.
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