Gabrielle Giffords' Astronaut Husband Mark Kelly to Command Last Endeavour Flight

Critically wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is married to a man who's even more of a high flier than she is. Mark Kelly is one of NASA's most prominent astronauts and is assigned to command the last scheduled flight of the space shuttle.

Kelly, 46, has flown on the shuttle three times since joining NASA in 1996. He now has the job of commander of shuttle Endeavour as it delivers a multi-million-dollar physics experiment to the International Space Station. The mission, tentatively scheduled for April, promises to be one of the most heavily scrutinized and high-profile shuttle flights in history, because it's the final flight on the books before the shuttle fleet is retired.

A.T. Willet, Getty Images

Astronaut Mark Kelly, left, applauds as his wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, speaks at the Democratic Election Headquarters in Tucson, Ariz., on election night, Nov. 2.

Giffords was shot and critically wounded while meeting with constituents Saturday at a Tucson, Ariz., shopping center. Six other people, includng a judge and a 9-year-old girl, were killed.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Congresswoman Giffords, her husband Mark Kelly, their family, and the families and friends of all who perished or were injured in this terrible tragedy," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

An astronaut's training so close to launch is all-consuming. A shuttle crew a few months from liftoff spends multiple hours in flight simulators and rehearsing their duties in orbit, squeezing time away from work to nearly zero. Combining that schedule with a family tragedy is likely to impose huge pressure on Kelly if he decides to continue with his command of Endeavour's mission.

Kelly is also distinctive as half of the first pair of blood relatives to be in the astronaut corps at the same time. His twin brother, Scott, is currently commander of the space station -- meaning he's living nearly 200 miles above the Earth and unable to be with his brother. Scott Kelly is slated to return to Earth in March.