Gabrielle Giffords – Doctors have given their approval for Gabrielle Giffords travel to Florida to see her husband carrying astronauts from space launch this week.
The trip will be the U.S. congressman for the first time since he was flown from Tucson, Arizona, to Houston for more than three months of treatment after she was shot in the head at a community event in his home state.
Her husband, Mark Kelly told CBS television that Giffords would witness the launch of Endeavour, scheduled for Friday afternoon at Cape Canaveral. Kelly is the mission commander.
“I met with his doctors, his neurosurgeon and have given us permission to take it to the launch,” said Kelly.
Barack Obama and the first family are also scheduled for launch, but it is unclear whether he will do with Giffords.
Families view launches from Kennedy Space Center a restricted area and no plans for Giffords to make a public appearance.
Giffords has not been seen in public since the shooting and has spent the last three months to relearn how to speak, walk and take care of itself. She has been singing – as part of music therapy – calling your favorite food and visits from family, friends, and their rabbi.
Kelly returned to practice for the shuttle launch in February after taking time off to be beside the hospital bed of his wife. Giffords went to Kelly’s last release in 2008, when he was commander of Discovery. The couple married in 2007.
Six people were killed and 13 wounded in the shooting in an outreach event in the parking lot of a mall in Tucson in January. Loughna Jared Lee, 22, has pleaded not guilty to the charges generated by the attack.
