CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) arrived in Florida Wednesday to witness her husband blast off into space aboard the shuttle Endeavour later in the week.
C.J. Karamargin, the congresswoman’s communications director, told NewsCore the flight from Houston was “without incident.”
Giffords, who was shot in the head outside a Tucson, Ariz., shopping center in January, boarded the NASA transport plane at Houston’s Ellington Airport earlier Wednesday, walking up the stairs to the jet with some help from an assistant. It was the first time Giffords was seen walking since the shooting.
The scene was a far cry from January 21, when the congresswoman was swathed in white blankets on a stretcher and transported from University Medical Center in Tucson to a Houston rehabilitation facility.
Since then, doctors have said Giffords is in the top five percent of patients recovering from her type of brain injury. She speaks in single words or declarative phrases, making her opinions known about everything from medications to T-shirts, according to The Arizona Republic. Dr. Gerard Francisco, the chief medical officer at TIRR Memorial Hermann who works with her five days a week, said Giffords can stand on her own and walk a little but is working to improve her gait.
Giffords was given the go-ahead by doctors last week to attend the space shuttle launch commanded by her husband, Capt. Mark Kelly.
President Barack Obama and his family were also expected to attend Friday’s launch, which will be Endeavour’s 25th and final flight and the second-to-last space shuttle launch.
Giffords is expected to attend a special gathering for astronauts and their loved ones at a place known as “the beach house” on the grounds of Kennedy Space Center, The Arizona Republic reported.
“It’s very small, very private, very quiet. So ‘party’ is the wrong word,” said Winston Scott, a former NASA astronaut and now dean of the Florida Institute of Technology’s College of Aeronautics. “The crew is going to go fly in space — the last thing you’d want to do is have a big party. It’s really just a dinner, a time for the crew and spouses to get together one last time before they go off and fly.”
Michael Moses, the launch integration manager for the space shuttle program, said Wednesday that he and other staffers were looking forward to Giffords attending the launch.
“We treat her visit like she is a crew family,” Moses said at a pre-launch press conference. “She just needs a little extra attention. She is NASA family and we are treating her like the rest of the crew families.”
“We are very pleased she is coming. The way we are pleased every family gets to come see the majesty of the liftoff of the shuttle,” Moses added.
The Arizona congresswoman was one of 13 people wounded when alleged gunman Jared Lee Loughner opened fire outside a Tucson grocery store as Giffords held a meet-and-greet event with constituents. Six people were killed in the rampage.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges, including murder and attempted assassination.