Remember that famous picture of Margaret Hamilton, the director of software engineering for Apollo 11, as she stands next to the huge pile of pages containing the code for the space mission.
The source code for Apollo 11 has now been shared by a former NASA intern Chris Garry on GitHub. The code hints of the impeccable sense of humour of the programmers as they toiled away at their machines.
The code refers the classic “Burn, Baby, Burn” by radio DJ, Magnificent Montague as it calls the Master Ignition Routine.
Similarly, the line 666 of the code for the lunar landing has a “numero mysterioso”.
Another programmer knows his manners well and does not forget to bid farewell and welcome again at the end of his code.
GitHub allows the programmers to enhance the code and make it more efficient by adding suggestions for changes. The space enthusiasts and programming geeks are adding their share of space jokes to have a laugh along all those space scientists from 1960s. One of the funniest additions is the MATTDAMON.s to save him from Mars.