Outside the Beltway

Husband Of Rep. Giffords To Command Final Endeavour Mission In April

Doug Mataconis · Friday, February 4, 2011 · 1 comment

Mark Kelly, the husband of Congresswoman Gabbrielle Giffords is headed back to space one last time:

Astronaut Mark Kelly is expected to announce Friday that he will command the upcoming flight of the space shuttle Endeavour, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Who would command the April shuttle flight came under question after the January shooting of Kelly’s wife, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

NASA indicated earlier that it would hold a news conference Friday afternoon to announce the commander of the shuttle voyage.

Kelly was set to be Endeavour’s commander before his wife was shot at an event in Arizona.

NASA has already announced that Kelly would be resuming flight training in Houston on Monday.

FILED UNDER: Science & Technology, Arizona, Gabrielle Giffords, Mark Kelly, NASA

About Doug Mataconis

Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

Linda says:

Friday, 4 February 2011 at 11:25

Okay, so I take that to mean Congresswoman Giffords’ is recovering as well as, if not better than, can be expected. Commander Kelly feels confident enough with her care and progress to resume shuttle training. I say bravo to them for trying to get back to some semblence of normal life.