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      CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The astronaut husband of wounded
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will head to space in April, a stunning
decision coming almost one month to the day that his wife was shot
through the head.


      The congresswoman not only survived, but by all accounts she is
making good progress in rehab in Houston, where husband Mark Kelly
will resume training Monday for shuttle Endeavour's final voyage.
One doctor has described her recovery as "lightning speed."


      NASA confirmed late Friday morning that Kelly will be aboard
Endeavour as commander of the two-week mission. He is holding a
news conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday
afternoon.


      Kelly, who's been on leave since the shooting, said in a news
release that he's looking forward to rejoining his crew and
finishing all the training. He noted that they have been preparing
for the space station delivery mission for more than 18 months and
will be ready to carry it out.


      "I appreciate the confidence that my NASA management has in me
and the rest of my space shuttle crew," Kelly said.


      Kelly's wife was gunned down outside a Tucson, Ariz.,
supermarket as she met with constituents on Jan. 8. Six people were
killed and 13 were injured in the rampage; a 22-year-old suspect is
in custody.


      The 40-year-old congresswoman was in intensive care for two
weeks, with Kelly at her bedside, before she was transferred to
Houston for what is expected to be a lengthy rehabilitation. Kelly
wanted her as close to him as possible, if he returned to work at
Johnson Space Center. He lives in the Houston area with his two
teenage daughters from a previous marriage, Claudia and Claire.


      Kelly, 46, spent the past month debating whether to step down as
commander of Endeavour. As he agonized over the decision, NASA
named a backup commander, Rick Sturckow, who joined the crew for
training. Kelly said all along that he wanted his wife's input in
the matter, if at all possible.


      Details of Giffords' recovery have not been released, including
whether she's able to speak. Last week, doctors said she would have
a valve inserted into her breathing tube to help her talk. She was
shot in the left side of her brain and doctors have said she had
weakness in the right side of her body.


      Her hospital, TIRR Memorial Hermann, last week said it would not
provide any more information on her condition. In a Twitter update
Wednesday, Mark Kelly said Giffords is making "Lots of progress!"


      She comes by her space knowledge not only from her husband, but
by her role as chairwoman of the House space and aeronautics
subcommittee.


      Kelly has just over two months before liftoff, targeted for
April 19. There's considerable training between now and then for
the mission, almost certainly with long hours and few days off for
the crew. The six astronauts will go into quarantine a week before
the launch, with limited access to family members.


      "We are glad to have Mark back," NASA's chief astronaut, Peggy
Whitson said in the news release. "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."


      Kelly - whose identical twin Scott currently is commander of the
International Space Station - has flown three times aboard space
shuttles. April's trip to the International Space Station will be
his fourth. He will lead a veteran, all-male, American-Italian
crew.


      The mission already was set to be one of the highest profile
shuttle flights ever. It will be Endeavour's last voyage and the
next-to-last for the entire 30-year shuttle program, and will
feature the delivery of an elaborate physics experiment by a Nobel
prize winner.


      Kelly's mission originally was scheduled for last July, but was
bumped into 2011 because the experiment wasn't ready.


      With Kelly back on board, the launch will "get the same kind of
attention that the (1998) John Glenn mission" received, said
Howard McCurdy, a public policy professor and space expert at
American University in Washington, D.C.


      McCurdy suggested the public will embrace Kelly's decision,
because it provides a sense of normalcy.

      "We all want her to go back to Congress; we'd like them both to
continue their careers and we'd like them to be whole and normal as
if this thing had never happened," said McCurdy, author of the
book "Space and the American Imagination."


      Both Kellys are Navy captains and joined NASA's astronaut corps
in 1996. In an interview from the space station Wednesday, Scott
Kelly said their Navy background as high-performance pilots enables
them to put their personal lives aside, when necessary, and focus
on the job at hand.


      "My brother certainly is very good at that," Scott Kelly told
The Associated Press. "I am absolutely 100 percent confident that
he will have no problem fulfilling his responsibilities the same
way as if this incident would have never occurred."


      Scott Kelly will be back on Earth by the time his brother flies.
He's due to land in a Russian Soyuz capsule in mid-March, closing
out a 5½-month mission.


      Last fall, Mark Kelly told the AP he felt lucky to command one
of the last shuttle flights. Atlantis will close out the shuttle
program this summer, if enough money is forthcoming.


      "It's just timing, actually. It's all about timing," he said.
"I've got a great mission. I've got a great crew. I've got what I
think is going to be some of the most important science that the
space station does."


      Until late last year, there was a chance the Kellys would meet
up in space because of their coinciding missions. But that
opportunity was dashed by delays caused by fuel tank cracks on
shuttle Discovery.


      When asked if there was anyone other than his brother he'd like
to fly with in space, Mark Kelly responded: "If it wasn't so
dangerous? My kids and my wife and my brother all at once. But this
flying in space stuff is a risky proposition. So I wouldn't let my
kids do it, not at their current age."


      AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report
from Washington.

Gallery

Updated rehab aims to give Giffords her life back

The Giffords shooting: the 'American Idol Effect'

The astronaut husband of wounded
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will head to space in April, a stunning
decision coming almost one month to the day that his wife was shot
through the head.

Giffords' astronaut husband decides to fly shuttle

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