Apollo Guidance Computer (1968)
Accession Number: X37.81 A-B
Gift of Charles Stark Draper Lab, MIT

In 1968, the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) made its debut orbiting the earth on Apollo 7. A year later, it steered Apollo 11 to the lunar surface. Astronauts communicated with the computer by punching two-digit codes and the appropriate syntactic category into the display and keyboard unit. Using the computer's display keyboard, known as the "DSKY" (pronounced "Diskey"), an astronaut could interact with the machine's navigational functions by using a "verb" + "noun" syntax, for example "Display" + "Velocity."

With few moving parts and no vacuum tubes, it was rugged and compact. Two DSKYs were installed on the Command Module: one on the main instrument panel and another near the passageway to the Lunar Module. The Apollo project, and in particular its computer, was a major impetus to the development and improved manufacturability of integrated circuitry (IC).