Weavers helped us get to the moon!

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Subtitles (11)

0:00In the 1960s, NASA’s engineers were building the Apollo spacecraft. But they ran into a

0:04major problem that almost prevented them from getting to the moon. To solve it, they brought

0:08in some unexpected help: expert weavers. The weaving experts helped get us to the

0:13moon by enabling NASA to shrink the size of the Apollo Guidance computer so that it could

0:18actually be launched into space. They did this by meticulously weaving the hardwired binary computer

0:23memory by hand by passing a needle attached to a wire back and forth either through or around

0:29the tiny rings in the core memory module; when they went through the ring, it encoded a one;

0:34and when they went around, it encoded a zero. And despite their ingenious deployment of skill

0:39and their critical role in the success of the moon landings, they were almost

0:44completely ignored by NASA and the press as Americans celebrated the successful mission.

0:49It wasn’t until very recently that at least some of the weavers were appropriately honored.

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