HOUSTON, April 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Second Lady Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, will visit NASA’s Johnson Space Center on Friday, April 5, to complete a Sister Cities International gift exchange with representatives from Houston and its Sister City, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

News media are invited to attend the gift exchange ceremony at 12:30 p.m. CDT Friday in Johnson’s Space Vehicle Mockup Facility where astronauts train for voyages to the International Space Station and soon, to the Moon.

On Friday, Mrs. Pence will present Abu Dhabi’s gift, a three-dimensional sculpture entitled “The Constellation,” to Houston City Council Member Jack Christie near the mockup of the Orion capsule being developed as the spacecraft for a new generation of explorers to the Moon and on to Mars. The facility is used to train astronauts for missions to the International Space Station an soon, to the Moon.

H.E. Falah Al Ahbabi, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council, presented the sculpture to Mrs. Pence, the Honorary Vice Chairwoman of Sister Cities International, in a March 13 ceremony at the Founder’s Memorial in Abu Dhabi, UAE. 

At the same ceremony, Mrs. Pence presented Abu Dhabi with a letter and a gift of a framed postcard featuring the “First Manned Moon Landing” on behalf of the Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. The gift highlights the 50th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969, and recognizes the interest and dedication UAE is showing in the development of its space program.

Mark Geyer, director of NASA Johnson Space Center, and Vanessa Wyche, deputy director of Johnson, and astronaut Randy Bresnik will be present to share Johnson’s role in human exploration with Mrs. Pence and about a dozen Sister Cities guests.

U.S. media wishing to attend the ceremony must request credentials from the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than noon Thursday, April 4. The deadline for foreign media has passed. Television media should plan to arrive at Johnson no later than 11 a.m. to allow time for badging. Other media should arrive at the badging office no later than 11:30 a.m. Media will be escorted from the Johnson Security Office, Bldg. 110, adjacent to the center’s main gate off NASA Road 1.

Learn more about NASA, the International Space Station, and the plans to return America to the Moon at:

https://www.nasa.gov/

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SOURCE NASA