Second Lady Usha Vance brought her 2025 Summer Reading Challenge to an out-of-this-world audience on Monday, Aug. 4, during a visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The event, held in partnership with Space Center Houston, welcomed campers and children of NASA employees. Astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams, who returned to Earth earlier this year after a long-duration mission, joined Vance on stage for a morning of stories, space-themed activities, and an unmistakable sense of wonder.
“This is really exciting for me because I love space and I love NASA, and I can’t believe that I get to hang out with a real astronaut,” the second lady told the crowd. Williams, smiling at the audience of young faces, returned the sentiment, saying she was “so thrilled” to be there with someone whose “passion for learning reaches beyond the stars.”
To highlight the reading challenge, the two women read Margaret and the Moon by Dean Robbins, a children’s book about Margaret Hamilton, the pioneering computer scientist who helped land Apollo 11 on the moon.
But the day’s focus went beyond reading. Campers and visiting children rotated through hands-on space activities—making postcards destined for space, trying their hand at a puzzle while wearing spacesuit gloves, “collecting” simulated lunar dust, and assembling a large-scale image of the Orion spacecraft. The mix of STEM exploration and storytelling matched the second lady’s stated mission: to connect reading with curiosity about the world—and beyond it.
Two of Vance’s three children, Ewan, 8, and Vivek, 5, accompanied her on the trip, taking part in the activities alongside other children. Her youngest, three-year-old Mirabel, stayed home this time.
The second lady later shared photos from the visit, taken by official White House photographer Harrison Koeppel, writing on Instagram that highlights included “reading with Suni Williams, collecting lunar dust, and making postcards to send to space.” She closed with a playful prompt to her young audience: “3… 2… 1… blast off into your next read!”
Launched in June, Usha Vance’s Summer Reading Challenge invites children in kindergarten through eighth grade to read 12 books between June 1 and Sept. 5. Participants who complete the challenge receive a personalized certificate, a small prize, and the chance to be entered into a drawing for a trip to Washington, D.C.
In Houston, the message was clear: in the same way astronauts train for missions, young readers can prepare for any adventure—starting with the turn of a page.
