Launching from TikTok to NASA

What started out as a fun way to share information that he was learning in school via TikTok, earned 21-year-old Justin Colon an invitation to watch the launch of Artemis 1, the first in a series missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.

Colon, an East Meadow High School grad and a senior at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, launched his TikTok account — the Justonian — in December 2021. From there, it took off to what it is now, 75.000 people who visit Colon’s channel to see him talk about science.

The idea sprouted while he was interning at the American Museum of Natural History as a junior in college in the hall of gems and minerals.

“I saw that when I was talking about the science, and I was so passionate about it, the people I were talking to started to get into the conversation more,” Colon said. “Eventually the other interns were like you should make a TikTok.”

Colon said that he wasn’t really on the social media platform because he thought it was mostly dancing videos.

“I just started to post what I knew, what I was teaching at the museum, and what I was learning in my classes, and something just clicked for a few people,” he said. “It just kind of started to grow from there, and I noticed that my space videos would do really, really well.”

One day, Colon stumbled upon the NASA Social program, and decided to apply.

The program was open for any digital creator from anywhere in the world. Those selected would get the opportunity to attend the Artemis 1 launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The unmanned mission is a test flight sending Orion around the Moon and back to Earth over a six-week mission to check out systems before the manned Artemis II mission. If all goes well, this mission would put the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon.

“The Artemis mission is really really, really important,” Colon stressed. “This is this generations’ version of the Apollo missions.”

He learned he had been accepted into the program about a week before the scheduled Aug. 29 launch of Artemis 1. “They were like ‘hey, we’d like to invite you to come down to Kennedy Space Center, tour everything, and get to see the launch from a private area,’” he said. “That’s a dream for any sort of Space Fan.”

When Colon arrived, he and about 100 other social media creators toured NASA facilities, met experts, NASA social media team members, and other influencers.

They did everything except for the highlight of the trip — view the launch.

“There was a hydrogen leak so they canceled the launch,” Colon said. “But we got to do so much other stuff that whole weekend that it was worth the trip down, I had the time of my life.”

The social program attendees were invited back for the rescheduled Sept. 3 launch, but Colon couldn’t go because his college classes had started up and again.

And then, the launch was rescheduled again, and Colon plans to be there for the next one.

“The launch is now scheduled for 12:07 a.m. on Nov. 14,” Colon said. “It’s all based on the weather conditions in Florida at the time, because they change so drastically. They can only launch it within certain windows.”

Justin’s dad John said that he wasn’t shocked that Justin got this opportunity.

“The way that Justin works is everything that he kind of applies for, it kind of falls into his lap,” John said. “He’s constantly working, though, and what he gets, it’s due to hard work. It’s not something that’s given to him.”

Justin said his interest in science came when he was in the gifted program at Barnum Woods Elementary School and then Woodland Middle School. A few projects where he had to study the moon and then later forensics, got him hooked.

“He’s always been intrigued by things, and he’s always been interested in learning, and teaching what he knows, even as a kid,” John said. “Anything he’s ever wanted to learn he would go into with full force and he’s wanted to be a forensic scientist since he was about eight years old.”

At John Jay College, Justin is studying forensic science and had hopes of working in a crime lab one day. But since his internship at the natural history museum, he knew he wanted to go on a different path — get his masters and then his PhD and jump into teaching higher level education.

“I realized I really loved to teach,” Justin said. “I really love science, and I feel like I have a knack for explaining some of the tougher things, and I feel like I might be able to inspire the next generation of scientists, which sounds like an absolute dream job to me.”