Title: Light Years Ahead: The Apollo Guidance Computer Speaker: Robert Wills Date: Thursday 15th Oct 2026 Time: 14:30 Location: 25 Copthall Ave, London EC2R 7BP and via the Internet using ZOOM.

About the seminar

July 20^th, 1969: Neil Armstrong was in the final stages of the Lunar descent, just a few thousand feet above the surface, when suddenly his computer indicated a critical alarm. For three nail-biting seconds it looked as if the mission would have to be aborted. However, Armstrong was given a “go” to continue, and after several more alarms the Eagle touched down safely.

Rob will introduce the amazing hardware and software that made up the Apollo Guidance Computer, walk you through the landing procedure step-by-step, and talk about the pioneering design decisions that were used to make the landing software robust against any failure. Finally, he’ll tell you what happened during Apollo 11, and show you how this amazing machine saved the mission.

About the speaker

Rob is a senior technical leader at Cisco, working on their most advanced networking operating system, IOS XR. In his free time he is enthusiastic about studying the history of computers, and has given talks at NASA, Airbus, the IET and various universities. Rob is a fast-paced and energetic speaker who loves to bring these dusty old machines to life in a fun and easy-going way.