Depending on the nature of the journalist's interest in "computer development," I'd suggest pointing the journalist in the direction of Margaret Hamilton and team's work on Apollo software. I'm not sure what type of interest the journalist has in "computer development": big machines, fast processors, virtual reality software, prototyping? 

http://news.mit.edu/2016/scene-at-mit-margaret-hamilton-apollo-code-0817
http://wg18.criticalcodestudies.com/index.php?p=/discussion/17/week-1-gendering-the-apollo-11-onboard-in-flight-software



http://news.mit.edu/2016/scene-at-mit-margaret-hamilton-apollo-code-0817



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On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 12:27 PM David C. Brock <dcb@dcbrock.net> wrote:
NASA was a sponsor of Englebart’s lab at SRI. NASA also funded work in computer graphics and animation. NASA’s JPL is an important site in the history of computer animation.

Just a couple of quick thoughts...
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On May 31, 2019, at 1:48 PM, Alex Roland <alex.roland@duke.edu> wrote:

Friends:

          I have been a passive member of SIGCIS for many years now, even though I am no longer an active researcher in the field.  Still, I follow your correspondence with great interest.  I am writing now because I have received an inquiry from a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who is interested in NASA’s historical contributions to computer development.  I know from research on my book Strategic Computing: DARPA and  the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983-1993 (2002) that NASA was involved in the Federal High Performance Computing Program in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  I do not, however, know of other significant contributions by NASA to computer development.  If anyone knows of such contributions, I would be happy to know about them.

Thanks,  Alex Roland

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