Mark Kelly, Gabrielle Giffords To Reunite After Endeavour Landing (VIDEO)

Giffords, Kelly To Reunite

After 16 days, Capt. Mark Kelly and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will see each other for the first time since space shuttle Endeavour launched.

Kelly and his crew will fly home to Houston today and sources said, Giffords' husband is eager to slip away and visit the Congresswoman in the hospital.

"She's really excited (to see him)," said Pia Carusone, Giffords' chief of staff. During his mission, Kelly called Giffords each night that he could. During those conversations, Giffords "listened intently," Carusone said, trying not to miss a trans-atmospheric word, pressing her phone close to her ear "in the way that you're talking to someone that you really miss."

And he is ready to see her. At the crew's postflight news conference Wednesday morning, Kelly said he had just e-mailed Giffords' mother asking her to let him know as soon as his wife was awake, "and then I'm going to call her," he said.

The Endeavour landed in the early morning on Wednesday after the crew conducted research on the International Space Station.

While Kelly was orbiting in space, Giffords had surgery on her skull so doctors could put a plastic implant in place to fully cover her brain.

The Congresswoman was shot in January during a meeting with constituents.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot