NASA confirmed Friday that astronaut Mark Kelly - husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords - will resume training for the April launch of the shuttle Endeavour on Monday, February 7.
"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, and we will be ready to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station and complete the other objectives of the flight. I appreciate the confidence that my NASA management has in me and the rest of my space shuttle crew."
Kelly has been by his wife's side since early January, when she was shot during a constituent event at an Arizona strip mall. The gunman killed six people, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and injured 13 others. In late January, Giffords was moved to a Houston rehab center, allowing Kelly to be near her while he continues training at NASA's Johnson Space Center, also in Houston.
"We are glad to have Mark back," Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at the space center, said in a statement. "He is a veteran shuttle commander and knows well the demands of the job. We are confident in his ability to successfully lead this mission, and I know I speak for all of NASA in saying 'welcome back.'"
During a Friday press conference, Kelly said that he got the ball rolling on this decision about a week ago, when he informed Whitson and Brent Jett, chief of the Flight Crew Operations Directorate, that he wanted to fly. Whitson and Jett then had Kelly do a few test runs this past week to see if he could balance a training schedule with the care that Giffords needed, and that was successful.
In deciding to return to the mission, Kelly said he took into account Giffords' progress as well as her rigorous rehab schedule. She is busy with speech, occupational, and physical therapy from 8am to 6pm seven days a week, Kelly said, so there is time for him to conduct his own training.
Kelly declined to elaborate specifically on Giffords' current condition, except to say that "she's improving rather quickly" and that her progress is "better than 99 percent of the other people that [doctors] see with this kind of injury."
Kelly hopes that Giffords will be in attendance for the April 19 launch. "There really shouldn't be any reason that she can't go to the launch," he said.
Kelly said he has the blessing of Giffords' family as well as his own. While on board the space shuttle, Kelly will have access to e-mail and NASA will likely coordinate one video chat session during the 14-day mission, he said.
Kelly said he has missed very little in the past four weeks, given the fact that the Discovery shuttle delays pushed back the Endeavour launch. "Those extra days that we got, turned out that it helped. So it turned out that I didn't really miss anything," he said.
On Monday, NASA TV will broadcast b-roll of Kelly's first training session at 12:30pm, with more added at 3pm.
Astronaut Rick Sturckow, who was named backup commander for the mission, will resume his role as the deputy chief of the Astronaut Office.
The space shuttle Discovery has been delayed since November due to weather, leaks, and cracks. It is now on schedule for a February 24 launch.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 3:45pm Eastern with quotes from the press conference.