The astronaut husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) will be at the command seat of the space shuttle Endeavor when it lifts off on its final flight in mid-April, NASA announced Friday.
Mark E. Kelly, who gained international attention after Giffords was shot in the head while meeting with constituents in January, has stayed away from work for several weeks to focus on his wife's recovery.
But Kelly will rejoin his five other shuttle crew members, and will explain his decision for resuming his command at a 3 p.m. news conference at the Johnson Space Center outside Houston, NASA announced.
"I am looking forward to rejoining my STS-134 crew members and finishing our training for the mission," Kelly said in a statement. "We have been preparing for more than 18 months."
Kelly, an active-duty Navy captain, has logged 38 days in space. He was commander of the shuttle Discovery's 2008 flight to the international space station and was pilot on two others. He joined the astronaut corps in 1996.
The last shuttle mission will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a state-of-the-art cosmic ray particle physics detector designed to examine fundamental issues about matter and the origin and structure of the universe. Kelly's twin brother, Scott J. Kelly, also an astronaut, has been at the space station since Oct. 7.
Kelly's decision to return to space comes as Giffords continues her rigorous therapy at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. Pia Carusone, Giffords's chief of staff, said Giffords is no longer confined to her bed all day and spends up to six hours a day with her therapists. Friends and family typically are not present during these sessions because she has to remain focused, Carusone said.
If she is still at the rehabilitation center when Kelly lifts off, which is likely, she will have no shortage of supporters at her side. There has been a constant stable of visitors at the hospital, where Giffords's room is decorated with flowers, family pictures and drawings sent in from Arizona elementary schools. Kelly spends some nights there; so do her parents, Spencer and Gloria Giffords.
The congresswoman has not spent a night alone since arriving, Carusone said. "It's not like it's a heavy, solemn mood there," she said. "There's a lot of reason to be very hopeful. There's oftentimes a lot of laughter coming out of the room, especially if her dad's in the room."
Read more at The Washington Post.
