Weavers helped us get to the moon!

In the 1960s, NASA’s engineers were building the Apollo spacecraft. But they ran into a major problem that almost prevented them from getting to the moon. To solve it, they brought in some unexpected help: expert weavers. The weaving experts helped get us to the moon by enabling NASA to shrink the size of the Apollo Guidance computer so that it could actually be launched into space. They did this by meticulously weaving the hardwired binary computer memory by hand by passing a needle attached to a wire back and forth either through or around the tiny rings in the core memory module; when they went through the ring, it encoded a one; and when they went around, it encoded a zero. And despite their ingenious deployment of skill and their critical role in the success of the moon landings, they were almost completely ignored by NASA and the press as Americans celebrated the successful mission. It wasn’t until very recently that at least some of the weavers were appropriately honored.