Member-only story
Ever since I was little, I’ve been geeking out over NASA and space missions. About a year after I moved to the US, before I could even speak English fluently, I went door-to-door in my little town of Muncie, Indiana to sell raffle tickets and chocolate to raise $200 to fund my school trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL. In high school, I was riveted by the NASA documentaries and movies that Mr. Engel showed in science class. The moon landing was always one of the most inspirational stories I recall.
All of those stories about the Apollo missions always focused on the astronauts. Maybe, occasionally, once in a while, Gene Kranz would, perhaps, get a nod. So I never expected that the most exciting story about NASA would have little to do with the stars of the show.
Recently I read a Wired article called Apollo 11: Mission Out of Control. I won’t repeat it here because I won’t do it justice, but basically it was the unknown story of how Armstrong and Aldrin almost got stranded on the moon — all because of a software bug. As a software engineer, so much of that story still rings true for me today.
In that critical moment, hurtling like a lawn dart toward the surface of the moon, the Apollo guidance computer had crashed.