VP Pence coming to Houston for astronaut announcement

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Vice President Mike Pence will head to Houston next week for a special visit to NASA's Johnson Space Center.

On Wednesday, the space agency will introduce the next generation of 12 astronaut candidates, chosen from a pool of over 18,000 applicants.

If chosen, the astronauts could potentially travel to the International Space Station, the moon or even Mars on NASA's next-generation Orion spacecraft.

After the event, Pence will tour the mission control center and receive a briefing about current spaceflight operations.