What is the most common programming language used for software on NASA probes?
These days Java is used extensively in the ground components, but flight software is written most often in C and most often on top of the VxWorks real-time operating system. Flight software bears little resemblance to application software used on personal computers. It is typically written to be very robust. The computers themselves are both shielded externally with aluminum enclosures up to 2 cm thick and also designed internally to be less susceptible to radiation by using smaller-scale integrated circuits and redundant parts. These computers typically operate much slower than general purpose computers, but far more reliably.
