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The Apollo Guidance Computer
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) provided reliable
real-time control for the Apollo spacecraft that carried US astronauts to the moon,
1969-1972. It was designed by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (now The Charles Stark
Draper Laboratory, Inc.) and manufactured by Raytheon Corporation.
The AGC was significant for its tight coupling of human and
machine, its early use of integrated circuits, and its reliable, mission critical
software. The history of the AGC project provides a window into the history of technology
in America during the space race and the Cold War. This site is devoted to
documenting the machines, people and institutions that made this achievement
possible.
Contents of the Site
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Introduction: Contains interpretive material about the
AGC and reference material about the AGC history project. This material addresses the
major questions that the AGC project history has posed |
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People: Contains biographical details of key figures in
the history of the AGC. |
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Documents: Contains links to document archive,
transcripts of conferences, and external links pages. |
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Discussions: Entry point to the AGC online discussion
forums. |
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Timelines: Entry point to the collaborative
timeline. Requires membership of the Apollo Guidance Computer group. |
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Computing in the Soviet Space Program:
Information on the development of guidance and navigational computing in the Soviet
Space program. |
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Staff: Details and contact information for AGC project
staff and members of the AGC project advisory board. |
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Bibliographies: Contains suggestions for further
reading about the AGC and the social, political and cultural contexts within which the
system was developed. |
For more detail on the layout of the site, go to the sitemap.
site last updated 02-01-2003 by Alexander Brown |
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