Will Bootle
McCallie sophomore Will Bootle will be aiming high this summer. Very high.
Bootle will travel to Washington, D.C., this summer for an internship with NASA at the Goddard Space Center, where he will work on a computer programming project designed to refuel satellites in orbit to extend their usefulness.
Bootle will be working to develop code used by robots that will be sent into space to automatically refuel satellites that would otherwise become useless and eventually burn up on reentry into the earth’s atmosphere.
Bootle, a boarding student from Beaufort, S.C., and member of the McCallie swim team, is one of just two or three high school students offered this internship, which is primarily reserved for college students.
“This mission is critical to help maintain our country's government and commercial satellites, and it is really exciting that I will be able to take part in designing a small portion of it,” Bootle said.