![]() In other words, software enabled one of the great technological achievements of the time. But a “restart” (reboot) provision in the software gave those back on Earth the confidence that the landing could proceed.įred Martin, 85, who managed much of the Apollo software development, told the WSJ, “The software saved the mission.” A “program alarm” in the lunar module known as “error code 1202” brought Mission Control within seconds of scrubbing it. Indeed, the “giant leap for mankind”-Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the lunar surface-would have been aborted if software hadn’t functioned correctly. As the Wall Street Journal put it couple of weeks ago: “It took more than big rockets to put humans on the moon … It took code.” Yes, in 1969 the internet was still 14 years away, the World Wide Web wouldn’t show up until eight years after that and wouldn’t become a “thing” for the masses for yet another five years or so.īut the Apollo 11 mission couldn’t have happened without computer code-software. Given the avalanche of media coverage this past week celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, if you didn’t know before, you surely now know that intense competition (with the Russians), monumental courage and American creativity and capability made it possible.īut, although it got a lot less coverage, coding did too. The original version of this post was published in Forbes. ![]() ![]() What did Apollo 11 teach us about software development? Coding practices have changed since 1969, but the lessons learned from the moon mission still hold. ![]()
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