The Woman in the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Helped Fly the First Astronauts to the Moon by Richard Maurer

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Woman in the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Helped Fly the First Astronauts to the Moon by Richard Maurer Kara Forde Maurer, Richard The Woman in the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Helped Fly the First Astronauts to the Moon. Roaring Brook, 2023 [272p] illus. with photographs Trade ed. ISBN 9781626728561 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781626728578 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 6-9 Media attention on NASA’s Apollo programs often focused on the star power of the astronauts and mission control, overlooking how crucial the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was to the success of the astonishing missions to the moon. Margaret Hamilton, the woman who rose through the ranks to become responsible for all the AGC’s software, is similarly overlooked, but her role was just as essential. This well-structured biography of Hamilton gives readers a glimpse into the revolutionary endeavor to write computer code that would enable the Apollo spacecrafts to fly almost autonomously. After a short prologue introduces readers to President Kennedy’s goal to get a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, the book chronologically details Hamilton’s early life and the ways it influenced her career, including her interest in abstract mathematics and her leadership experience managing a tourist attraction in Michigan. The more riveting reading occurs in the later portions of the book, as Maurer describes Hamilton’s fascinating accomplishments in the fledgling field of computer coding. Maurer’s writing style is engaging, and he manages to make even the most complicated subjects accessible. Scattered throughout the main narrative are brief descriptions of STEM topics that supplement the information more closely related to Hamilton’s life, as are many distinctive black-and-white archival photographs. The acknowledgements reveal that Maurer’s first-hand conversations with Hamilton formed the basis of this biography; other back matter includes a timeline, end notes for textual references, a bibliography of oral histories, books, and articles, and an index to come. [End Page 229] Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois