I think the answer was right there in their comment. "The compiler for our flight hardware platform is GCC 4.1 (upgrading to GCC 4.3 soon if we're lucky)". Of

I think the answer was right there in their comment. "The compiler for our flight hardware platform is GCC 4.1 (upgrading to GCC 4.3 soon if we're lucky)". Often, the only high-level language available for an embedded platform is a standard C compiler. If you're lucky.