I would say go for it but make sure you leverage your time well.
That means, attend as many hackathons/programming competitions as you can. Get involved with some club on campus related to what you're interested in (aerospace club?). Try to increase your network of friends.
I'm half way through a CS program and a lot of people get so caught up in the course work that they have no time left for anything else. It's hard to make time for other things while in school but most people don't even try.
Anecdotal Experience: There was a short break in the middle of the semester, when everyone was chilling or studying for midterms, I was attending a hackathon which later got me an interview for an internship. I failed the interview and didn't get the internship. However, when everyone was studying for their final exams, I was finishing up my application for Google Summer of Code and did get accepted into that.
Neither of those things would have happened to me if I wasn't in school and if I didn't pursue them myself.
Also, in both cases, it helped that I had previous work/projects that I could build on. I didn't attend the hackathon with the intention of landing an interview and I never imagined that another experience I just did for fun would one day help me get into GSoC.
So, if you start a degree program and you already have some past experience/interesting projects, you're at a pretty significant advantage.