A STUDENT from York with an ambition to work for NASA has seen his career lift off after being invited to work on an ambitious British satellite project.

Luke Bussell, a GCSE student at Bootham School, made such an impression on members of the British Interplanetary Society, with his computer skills, they invited him to join them as a software engineer on a project to launch hundreds of tiny satellites into space.

Luke, 16, said: “I contacted the British Interplanetary Society when researching for my essay about the exploration of Mars and I also offered my help in the hope of some work experience – but I certainly wasn’t expecting this.

“I’ll be writing the code in programming for one of their satellites which will be going into space towards the end of the summer; it’s one of a hundred or so small satellites that’ll be sent into low earth orbit.”

This KickSat project will see the launch into orbit of hundreds of tiny independent satellites, each capable of sending data back to Earth, which could potentially help with climate monitoring, communications developments or other applications.

Luke’s talent means that this time next year, orbiting spacecraft he has helped to design could be orbiting the Earth.

He said: “I’m very excited especially as I’m only 16, it came as a bit of a surprise.

“I’m concentrating on my gcse’s at the moment and then I’m planning to study physics, chemistry, maths and Latin. After that, I’d like to study electronics.”

“My ambition would be to work for NASA – it’s the mystery of what’s beyond our world, that fascinates me.”

Bootham head teacher, Jonathan Taylor said: “We are all just incredibly proud of what he’s achieved. Well done, Luke.”