Spaceflight, from the beginning, has depended on computers – both on the ground and in the spacecraft. SpaceX has carried it to a new level. We recently spoke with Steven Gerding, Dragon’s software development lead, about the special challenges software development has for SpaceX's many missions.
We’ve talked about the software that flies SpaceX rockets, the team that tests the code to ensure it’s airtight, and the code that helps Starlink satellites communicate with customers and one another. For our last piece, we’re diving into the work of a team that helps the vehicles get built.
There are requirements that make software engineers sweat. Massive distribution to thousands of nodes. High reliability and availability. Multiple distinct platforms. Rapid network growth. This is the world SpaceX’s Starlink program, which has set a goal to provide high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.
The suddenly strained unemployment systems often run on a 60-year-old programming language, COBOL. So, how can you learn it, make big bucks, and save lots of state agencies that need new code to deal with all the new government stimulus programs?
The tradition of a "Hello, World" program goes back at least to 1978. But for modern coders, what's an appropriate "Hello, World"?
It's now been more than 50 years since the first IFIP Conference on Software Engineering, and in that time there have been many different software engineering methodologies, processes, and models proposed to help software developers achieve that predictable and cost-effective process. But 50 years later, we still seem to see the same kinds of problems we always have: late delivery, unsatisfactory results, and complete project failures.
