Chris Cultee will have a close-up view when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flies past Pluto on Tuesday.
Cultee, who attends the Northwest Indian College on the Lummi Reservation near Bellingham, is an intern at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center this summer. He tweeted Monday about his experiences at @NASASunEarth with the hash tag #RaceOnTech.
He got into rocketry through his college's Space Center -- it was named by one of the students as sort of a joke, although it has become anything but that, with guidance from computer science teacher Gary Brand and attention from NASA.
This is Cultee's third year as a NASA intern.
I’m Chris Cultee, a heliophysics intern @NASAGoddard. Here’s my story for @NPR’s #RaceOnTech http://t.co/jcPWfWOrVA pic.twitter.com/8PSftzIPOJ
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) July 13, 2015
He's been working on some pretty great stuff, both in college and at NASA.
This year I built & programmed an autonomous robotic arm with NWIC rocket club for a @NASA competition #RaceOnTech pic.twitter.com/Eplu8mFuL4
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) July 13, 2015
.@npralltech Today, working on formatting #spaceweather site. Tomorrow, planning to follow #PlutoFlyby w @NASA_Eyes app! #RaceOnTech
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) July 13, 2015
Cultee has been working with a program at the NASA space center to increase participation in science and math among Native Americans. There are two other Native Americans working as interns there this summer.
There are 2 other Native American interns at @NASAGoddard & we’re working to ensure more come in future #RaceOnTech pic.twitter.com/uNw4PqCYwI
— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) July 13, 2015
You can read all of Cultee's tweets in the Storify below: