City of Hope Breast Cancer Awareness Month event celebrates ‘strength and resilience’

• October 8, 2026

The statistics can be unsettling: One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. And for Orange County women, that number rises to one in seven.

In California, City of Hope estimates 34,170 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year alone.

“But none of you is a number,” Annette Walker, president of City of Hope Orange County, said to a gathered group of women. “You are mothers and daughters, wives and sisters, friends and colleagues.”

She was speaking Wednesday at an event billed as “a joyful celebration of strength and resilience” at the Irvine cancer hospital, where dozens of cancer survivors, doctors and others gathered to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“Advances in screening and precision medicine have helped breast cancer survival rates now exceed 90%,” Walker said. “That’s amazing.”

But the day was also about encouraging women to pay attention to their health and advocate for themselves and recognizing the areas where progress in the fight against breast cancer is still needed.

Doctors in pink lab jackets urged women to get screened early and not put off mammograms because the best chances of breast cancer survival will always be early diagnosis.

An initial breast cancer risk assessment should be done by age 25 and annual mammograms should begin at 40 for people with average risk, they said.

“Only 40% of women get their mammogram every year, and for certain demographics, like Asian women, the percentage is even less,” lamented Dr. Jennifer Tseng, medical director for breast surgery at City of Hope Orange County.

Sade Wilson, one of two survivors to speak at the event, was 35 when she started having breast pain, she said. Her doctor performed a breast exam and didn’t detect anything. Wilson said her insurance wouldn’t approve a mammogram because she was considered too young.

She waited another year, and the pain persisted. This time, her doctor ordered an MRI and helped speed up the insurance approval process.Two days after Christmas, sitting on the examining table at her doctor’s office, she was told: “We got the biopsy results, and it’s cancer.”

Wilson had invasive ductal carcinoma.

“It was like in the movies,” she said. “The whole room went silent, and I couldn’t process anything.”

The single mother said she did all her crying outside the view of her young daughter, who found out about the diagnosis weeks later.

“Don’t feel alone,” Wilson told others. “You are more than your scars and loss of hair.” She also advised those newly diagnosed to “be an advocate for yourself.”

She ultimately ended up at City of Hope, where she bonded with her surgeon, Dr. Veronica Jones, who wiped away tears as Wilson described being cancer-free for four years.

Both women are Black.

Black women have a 5% lower breast cancer incidence than White women, but paradoxically, they have a 38% higher risk of dying from the disease, according to Breastcancer.org.

Jones said she wanted to be a surgeon ever since she was a young girl and her grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  In achieving her childhood dream, she joined the small group of Black female oncological surgeons in the U.S.; they represent less than 3% of all practicing surgeons, according to a study published by the National Institutes of Health.

The event ended with a surprise gift from the doctors and nurses to the patients and survivors: pink bomber jackets that will later be custom embroidered.

Tammy McInerney of Foothill Ranch, who has been cancer-free for two years, said she was touched at receiving the jacket at the end of the celebration. She had no idea the gathering would focus so much on the survivors, she said. “It was a nice surprise.”

“When you see pink this month — a ribbon, a coat, or one of these jackets — I hope you think about the women you met here today,” Walker said. “Women who faced something they never asked for, came through it, and then chose to turn around and offer a hand to the woman behind them.

“That is what hope looks like.”

​ Orange County Register 

Chargers’ running back rotation explained by OC Mike McDaniel

• October 8, 2026

EL SEGUNDO — Omarion Hampton rushed for 45 yards and one touchdown on nine carries during the Chargers’ 30-23 loss this past Sunday to the Seattle Seahawks. Keaton Mitchell gained 39 yards on 10 carries. Kimani Vidal had 25 yards on five carries. Justin Herbert scrambled six times for 40 yards.

Overall, the Chargers rushed for 147 yards, a season high, on 32 attempts, matching their highest of the season. Their yardage was well above their season average of 121.5 net yards per game, which ranked ninth-best in the NFL going into Sunday’s home game against the Denver Broncos.

The only puzzle in the equation was why there was so little action for Hampton, a first-round draft pick in 2025 who had established himself as the starting running back during training camp. Why did his carries drop from a career-high 23 in Week 2 to 15 in Week 3 and then to nine in Week 4?

Were fumbles in each of the first two games to blame? Had he lost his status as the lead back? Were backups Mitchell and Vidal performing better? Why has there been a three-man rotation at the position for the past two games after there wasn’t one in the season’s first two contests?

Offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel attempted to answer those and other pressing questions about the Chargers’ ground game on Thursday, something head coach Jim Harbaugh failed to address adequately in the aftermath of Sunday’s loss, the Chargers’ fourth in a row to start the season.

“No,” Harbaugh said when asked Sunday if Hampton’s workload decrease was tied to his fumble late in a 26-14 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 2. “It’s just three different backs that were playing really well and rotating carries (against the Seahawks). But pleased with the way our running backs were playing.”

Asked for the rationale behind starting the rotation in Week 3, a 24-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Harbaugh said, “We think it’s best for our team. That’s what we think is best for our team and all three backs are playing good. We want to utilize them. We see the benefit. Hard running guys. Pleased with the way they are playing.”

McDaniel on Thursday echoed some of Harbaugh’s comments and expanded on others.

“It wasn’t a situation where we were punishing (Hampton),” McDaniel said. “We see our running back room as a strength of the team. Now, depending on how the game plays out, I’ve had plenty of times where you’re involving all three on a game day, they can be equal carriers. It’s all within our planning process on things that people are good at, that we’re trying to give people opportunities.”

McDaniel stressed that what happened against Seattle might not be repeated against Denver. The game plan against the Broncos might start with one specific focus, but might be altered if certain events dictate changes. It’s important to adjust on the fly as well as from week to week.

“Each week you’re trying to assess how you give the guys the most empowerment to play their best, and we felt really good about what ‘O’ was doing on a couple of types of scheme, trying to give him confidence as we knew he was going to be mindful to protect the ball,” McDaniel said of Hampton.

“But each week, I think, it’s an advantage to the Chargers with defenses having to prepare three different tackling plans for backs with various skill sets. It’s important for what I see as an asset, as a strength of a strength, and if you don’t disperse the carries, it’s very rare in this day and age that guys are available every week.”

McDaniel referred to the likelihood of an injury if a running back was overworked.

“You have to be mindful of how to attack a defense,” he said. “Realistically, I don’t see any change in terms of the depth chart at all. I felt I was under-utilizing a strength. There’s lots of different ways a game can go. There’s lots of different personnel. So, I’m trying to find the right balance.”

NO DEMOTION

Ryan Ficken, the Chargers’ special teams coordinator, said he wouldn’t relieve return specialist Derius Davis of his duties despite a muffed punt in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks. The turnover set up Seattle’s first touchdown of the game, giving the Seahawks an early 7-3 lead. Ficken didn’t rule out trying other players in the role, though.

“We’ve got to come through with that catch,” he said. “There’s always consideration (of using others as returners). We’re always uncovering that stone to see what is out there, but what we have and what (Davis) has done, we’ve got to continue to do a great job and help our team.”

​ Orange County Register 

Homeland Security targets Democratic campaign after ICE arrest in Pennsylvania

• October 8, 2026

By MARC LEVY

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicized the arrest of a Nigerian man for indecent exposure this week, it included a political attack that’s drawing complaints from Democrats and a nonpartisan government watchdog.

The department’s press release alleges that the man worked for a Democratic congressional candidate in a Pennsylvania battleground district, an unusual reference to a high-profile midterm contest.

“It’s unbelievable that Janelle Stelson would employ an illegal alien to work on a congressional campaign, let alone a pervert who exposed himself in public,” Charles Wall, deputy director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in the press release.

A police report said the man had fliers for Stelson in his vehicle. Stelson denied that the man was a campaign employee.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about how it established the man worked for Stelson. Its press release cited a news report quoting a conservative activist who asserted the connection.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, calling the department’s attack on Stelson a blatant violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using their official positions to influence elections.

Donald Sherman, who leads CREW, said he’d never seen anything like the department’s statement, where a law enforcement agency “goes out of its way” to reference a campaign affiliation in a press release that has nothing to do with election-related crimes.

The press release is “consistent with the message that the administration and that the president has sent from the top that ICE is to be involved in elections, regardless of what the law says,” Sherman said.

Stelson, a former local television personality, is running for the second time against Republican Rep. Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. It’s expected to be one of the races that determines control of the U.S. House in the November midterms.

“If he is an illegal immigrant who committed a crime he should be deported,” Stelson’s campaign said. “We never heard of him prior to the news of his arrest. We are grateful to law enforcement for acting swiftly to arrest him.”

President Donald Trump’s administration is already under scrutiny for using federal resources for political purposes. The Department of Homeland Security has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on advertisements glorifying Trump and promoting his campaign messaging, drawing a pair of lawsuits and bipartisan backlash.

According to a police report obtained by The Associated Press, Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe was arrested by an East Pennsboro Township police officer on Sept. 27 after a report of a suspicious vehicle parked next to a public park on a residential street in the Harrisburg suburb.

The officer wrote that, when Igbojekwe opened the door to talk to the officer, he noticed that Igbojekwe’s “genitals were exposed.”

Igbojekwe told the officer he was “in the neighborhood for work and that he was waiting to hand out flyers for Janelle Stelson’s political campaign,” according to the report. Igbojekwe produced a stack of flyers, the officer wrote.

It’s not clear whether the man was working as a paid canvasser for another organization.

Igbojekwe was charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, courts records say, and later was arrested by ICE.

Homeland Security said Igbojekwe entered the country legally in 2017 but remained past his “authorized period.” He was granted deferred action by President Joe Biden’s administration in 2021.

Igbojekwe’s public defender did not return a call about the case.

Follow Marc Levy at http://x.com/timelywriter

​ Orange County Register 

Horse racing notebook: ‘Grand Slam’ can end slump at Santa Anita

• October 8, 2026

Many of the most popular horses in California are about to take off for Kentucky and a shot at millions of dollars in Breeders’ Cup purses Oct. 30-31 at Keeneland Race Course. Many, not all.

Grand Slam Smile, below the class to compete in Breeders’ Cups but queen of the California-bred division, is poised to end an uncharacteristic losing streak when the 5-year-old faces as many as nine other fillies and mares Sunday in the California Distaff Handicap for state-breds sprinting down the Santa Anita turf hillside.

After rewarding frequent heavy backing by bettors by recording 12 wins, six seconds and three thirds in her first 21 starts – that’s 100% in the money – Grand Slam Smile ran fifth behind Sweet Azteca in the Grade II Great Lady M. Stakes at Los Alamitos and fourth behind Fibonaccis Ride in the Solana Beach Stakes at Del Mar.

Trainer Sean McCarthy said Grand Slam Smile is ready to get back in the winner’s circle.

“She’s doing as well (in training) as she ever has,” said McCarthy, who has accounted for the mare’s past five stakes victories, all against Cal-breds, after now-retired Steve Specht was responsible for her first five, four in the Cal-bred ranks. “We’re optimistic for Sunday.”

In the Los Alamitos race, McCarthy said, a horse acting up in the starting gate next to Grand Slam Smile caused the habitual front-runner to miss the break.

“That’s a situation that’s hard to overcome,” McCarthy said.

At Del Mar, she was challenged for the early lead from the outside, and jockey Juan Hernandez took a firm grip.

“She’s kind of a free-running type filly, and when she was in a situation where they had a little bit of a hold on her, I don’t think she was happy about that,” the trainer said.

Grand Slam Smile will have Hernandez again in the California Distaff Handicap and has been assigned a career-high 128 pounds, seven more than top rival Bit’s Tiger Magic (Hector Berrios riding) and six more than Rosa Parks (Umberto Rispoli).

“That’s old-school. That’s some real weight,” said McCarthy, who said he doesn’t ordinarily consider weight a factor. “At the end of the day, I don’t think it should matter.”

On Sunday, the California Flag Handicap turf sprint for Cal-bred males has Big City Lights (Kazushi Kimura) carrying 126, two more than top rival Flyover (Emisael Jaramillo).

Santa Anita has racing on the holiday Monday too, featuring the Swingtime Stakes, a turf mile for fillies and mares.

• These are the weeks when many Breeders’ Cup horse owners and trainers are deciding which race to target. The biggest questions: Will 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty make it to the Breeders’ Cup Classic after dealing with a foot abscess? And if he does, will Pacific Classic winner Knightsbridge avoid facing Godolphin stablemate Sovereignty in the Classic by moving to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile? Pre-entries will be announced Oct. 21, with the fields set for Oct. 26.

• John Creager, the 1994 American Quarter Horse Association champion jockey and one of four riders to win 2,000 or more races at Los Alamitos, died Tuesday at 75, the Orange County track announced. Among Creager’s top horses was Sgt Pepper Feature, with whom he beat Denim N Diamonds in the 1982 Champion of Champions.

• Empressum, the 2022 AQHA world champion and two-time Champion of Champions winner, makes his 8-year-old season debut Saturday with jockey Rodrigo Sigala Vallejo in the Grade I Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship. Opponents include Favorite Jesshawk, Lethal Cowboy 123, Mask Mandate, Up For Everything and Norco.

• Safety watch: The death of the quarter-horse 2-year-old gelding Boi Sterrus, injured Saturday night at Los Alamitos while finishing sixth in a trial for the Golden State Million Futurity, is the 27th since Jan. 1 in racing and training at the three California racetracks, according to an unofficial count from California Horse Racing Board data. That’s above the average of 23.4 for this part of the year in 2021-25, but well below the 42 in 2020, the first year the CHRB posted fatalities. It was the 10th death at Los Al since Jan. 1. That’s in line with the average of 9.8 in 2021-25, but much better than the 24 in 2020.

Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.

SANTA ANITA LEADERS

(Through Sunday)

Jockeys / Wins

Emisael Jaramillo / 8

Juan Hernandez / 7

Umberto Rispoli / 6

Kazushi Kimura / 5

Joel Rosario / 5

Kyle Frey / 4

Hector Berrios / 3

Drayden Van Dyke / 3

Armando Ayuso / 3

Trainers / Wins

Jeff Mullins / 4

John Sadler / 4

George Papaprodromou / 4

Doug O’Neill / 4

Phil D’Amato / 4

Carla Gaines / 3

Richard Mandella / 3

Michael McCarthy / 3

(Six tied) / 3

UPCOMING STAKES

SANTA ANITA

Saturday

• $100,000 California Flag Handicap, Cal-bred 3-year-olds and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf

Sunday

• $100,000 California Distaff Handicap, Cal-bred fillies and mares, 3 and up, about 6½ furlongs on turf

Monday

• $80,000 Swingtime Stakes, fillies and mares, 3 and up, 1 mile on turf

LOS ALAMITOS

Saturday

• $100,000, Grade I Robert Boniface Los Alamitos Championship, quarter horses 3 and up, 440 yards

Sunday

• $35,000, Grade III Sound Dash Handicap, quarter-horse fillies and mares, 3 and up, 350 yards

​ Orange County Register 

Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed

• October 8, 2026

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be “public.”

Hegseth, speaking to the conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice News on Wednesday, said the execution of Hasan will take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth spoke to the outlet aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier while visiting the long-deployed crew, who supported the Iran war, before their arrival at their home port in San Diego.

When asked if Hasan had made any final requests or reached out to the Trump administration, Hegseth simply replied: “Don’t care. We’ll see him on December 3rd.”

Officials in the Pentagon clarified Thursday that the execution will be livestreamed and that more details would follow.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell had said Monday that President Donald Trump had approved the execution of Hasan.

Trump has previously been critical of public executions in Iran, at times using the possibility of protesters being killed by the Iranian government as a possible rationale for military action. Those warnings preceded his ultimate choice to attack Iran at the end of February over its ballistic missiles and the risk of it developing nuclear weapons.

“We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping,” Trump told reporters on Jan. 14 of this year. “It’s stopping and there’s no plan for executions.”

He repeated that claim on Jan. 20 at a White House press briefing, saying: “We let them know that if that happens, that will be a very bad day for them. And they decided not to do it. They didn’t hang the people.”

Slightly more than a month later in his State of the Union address, Trump said, “We stopped them from hanging a lot of them with the threat of serious violence.”

The White House on Thursday immediately referred questions about the plans for the livestreamed execution to the Pentagon.

However, experts on military law said Hasan could choose to resist execution and file a habeas petition in civilian court, which could significantly delay the execution.

“It frankly might outlast the current administration, and who knows if the next one will have the same penchant for executions,” Eugene R. Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School specializing in military law.

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major, walked into a medical building where soldiers were were waiting in long lines to receive immunizations and medical clearance for deployment. He shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great!” — and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun.

During the trial it was revealed that Hasan spent weeks planning the deadly attack, and his preparation included videotaping a sales clerk showing him how to change the magazine on the pistol that he purchased. He would later go to a gun range outside Austin and ask for advice on how to reload with speed and precision from an instructor.

Soldiers later testified that Hasan’s rapid reloading made it all but impossible to stop the shooting. Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the building and dozens more outside, where Hasan shot at the backs of soldiers fleeing toward the parking lot.

Hasan said it was an effort to stop them from going to Afghanistan and killing his fellow Muslims. A military judge barred him from presenting that as a defense during his trial. Hasan made almost no effort to defend himself in court, telling jurors when he acted as his own counsel that evidence would show he was the shooter and describing himself as a soldier who had “switched sides.”

Hegseth said the military hasn’t executed a servicemember by firing squad since World War II. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was executed by hanging.

​ Orange County Register 

Man with a gun and knife is fatally shot by security at Nashville federal courthouse, police say

• October 8, 2026

By KRISTIN M. HALL and ED WHITE

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man armed with a pistol and knife was fatally shot by a security officer Thursday just inside the busy entrance of a federal courthouse in Tennessee’s largest city, authorities said.

The man in his 40s tried to fire his gun but failed and then pulled out a knife at around 9:30 a.m., said Don Aaron, spokesperson for Metro Nashville Police.

“The security individual fired on the armed individual,” Aaron said, adding that the man was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The man was from out of state. Investigators didn’t immediately know why he was at the courthouse, and a search of his car found “nothing threatening,” Aaron said.

Courthouse visitors must go through a security checkpoint, which is common at all federal courts. The entrances are typically staffed by armed former police officers contracted by the U.S. Marshals Service.

“That’s the entrance that most people in this courthouse use,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire told reporters outside.

The library next door was closed as a result, and officers with dogs were circling the perimeter while workers in nearby buildings gathered to watch.

McGuire noted that the local U.S. Attorney’s Office is inside the courthouse, as are the offices of Tennessee’s U.S. senators.

There have been “security instances where a person acts up or acts inappropriately and has to be removed from the premises, but nothing even approaching this kind of situation,” he said.

Reports of the shooting immediately stirred anxiety and concern.

“People are calling their families to let them know they’re OK,” McGuire said. “I called my wife, called my son, called people that I knew were wanting to know if I was OK. We’re all doing that.”

White reported from Detroit.

​ Orange County Register 

Ducks take off for two games in Canada after first loss

• October 8, 2026

The Ducks set their compasses north, heading for a weekend jaunt through Western Canada that will take them to Winnipeg in an effort to down the Jets on Friday and to Calgary to face the Flames on Saturday.

They started the season with seven solid periods but crumbled in the eighth, turning a high-flying first frame and a 2-0 lead into a 5-2 thumping at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.

“We approached the start of the year in good shape. We got a market correction today, so let’s see how we’ll handle it. Let’s respond in the correct way,” said Ducks coach Joel Quenneville of his team’s quick pivot to consecutive road games.

Quenneville also pointed out that in their two home games the Ducks (2-1-0) had no 5-on-5 goals, scoring five times on the power play in a split of their decisions. All their goals in a 4-3 victory to open the season in Vegas did come at even strength.

Winger Beckett Sennecke, who lit the lamp twice Wednesday, noted that the Ducks were excelling at high tempos and when they had room to skate, but weren’t nearly as dangerous when play slowed down.

“We know we have a lot of fast guys, and we know when we play that way we’re tough to beat, but when we don’t, we’re not that effective,” Sennecke observed.

Nikita Klepov, 18, made his debut against Edmonton, playing just over 10 minutes and being credited with five hits. He was also on the receiving end of a few checks. Quenneville was still deciding how much, if at all, Klepov would figure into the brief road trip. Klepov was the third player in three games to skate on the right side of the third line, which has lacked identity thus far.

Before the Ducks were saddled with their first loss of the season, the NHL’s only other undefeated team, the Colorado Avalanche, lost earlier in the evening. They slipped against the opponent in the on-deck circle for the Ducks in Winnipeg.

After grilling up a slump sandwich last year, bookending their campaign with surges but descending into a midseason abyss, the Jets have again looked solid out of the gate. They have yet to lose in regulation (3-0-1) with Kyle Connor and Cole Perfetti leading the way offensively.

They’ve been without discontented star goalie Connor Hellebuyck after he was suspended for not reporting to training camp, and might be sans top defenseman Josh Morrissey due to an upper-body injury he sustained Wednesday.

Calgary, on the other hand, appears destined for the top draft lottery odds at wunderkind defenseman Landon Dupont. Not only are they one of three franchises without a win in 2026-27, they’d scored just three goals in their first three games ahead of a buzzsaw matchup with Colorado on Thursday. There are 26 individual players who have at least three goals already in 2025-26.

Ducks at Winnipeg

When: 5 p.m. PT Friday

Where: Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba

How to watch: KCOP (Ch. 13), Prime Video

Ducks at Calgary

When: 7 p.m. PT Friday

Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta

How to watch: KCOP (Ch. 13), Prime Video

​ Orange County Register 

Margaret Hamilton, who led a software team for NASA’s Apollo program, dies at 90

• October 8, 2026

By JAMIE STENGLE

Margaret Hamilton, a groundbreaking computer scientist who led the team that created the onboard flight software for NASA’s moon-bound Apollo program and later in life was celebrated as a powerful symbol of women in technology, has died. She was 90.

Hamilton died Sept. 30 at a hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her daughter, Lauren Hamilton, told The Associated Press on Thursday. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on the social platform X that her work helped make humanity’s first journeys to the moon possible.

“To say Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer — to say she was ahead of her time — would be a dramatic understatement,” Olivier de Weck, the Apollo program professor at MIT and interim head of its aeronautics and astronautics department, told MIT News, a publication of the university’s communications office.

“She was a software engineer at a time when that field was in its infancy,” de Weck continued, “and she not only developed advanced code herself but also led a team in using that nascent technology to develop one of the most complex systems humanity had ever achieved.”

In recent years a photo circulated online showing a smiling Hamilton, in her early 30s, standing next to a towering stack of pages containing codes her team used during the Apollo project. And a Lego set celebrating the women of NASA that was unveiled in 2017 included a figure of Hamilton.

She graduated with a degree in mathematics from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, in 1958 and went to work for MIT in 1959. Her early focus there included working with a meteorology professor on weather prediction software, according to the MIT News article. In the mid-1960s, she started at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab, which had a NASA contract for Apollo.

After first working on software for uncrewed missions, she later led the team developing the onboard flight software for the crewed missions, and by 1968 she was assistant director in charge of the command and service module team, according to MIT News.

“We took our work seriously, many of us beginning this journey while still in our 20s,” Hamilton told MIT News in 2009. “Coming up with solutions and new ideas was an adventure.”

“Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust,” she continued. “We had to find a way, and we did. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers.”

She worked at the Instrumentation Lab into the 1970s and then founded two software companies, according to MIT News.

Hamilton received many awards and accolades, including being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2016 by President Barack Obama.

​ Orange County Register