Congressional Spouses... IN SPACE!

Remember Gabrielle Giffords?  She won the open seat in southeast Arizona formerly held by moderate Republican Jim Kolbe in 2006.  Well, Rep. Giffords is in the news now - as the first member of Congress with their spouse in outer space.

Link

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - With her husband in command of space shuttle Discovery and on the verge of launching, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wanted to set the record straight.

She wasn't at the NASA launch site as a member of Congress. She was there "strictly as the spouse" — the new wife of commander Mark Kelly — and just as excited and nervous as any of the other astronauts' family members.

"We've been married six months, and the space program is relatively new to me," she said Saturday. "I mean, I grew up in Arizona, I'm a third-generation Arizonan, have no connections at all to NASA.

"I couldn't be prouder."

Giffords cheered and gripped her mother-in-law's arm and her own mother's hand as Discovery blasted off Saturday. As soon as the shuttle reached orbit, one of Kelly's astronaut friends presented her with red roses and a card — from her husband.

"It was just fantastic. It was really amazing," she said.

I, for one, wish I could go into space.  I wish, however, that we could develop an alternative fuel source for our rockets.  How come no one ever talks about that?  How many barrels of oil go into powering our rockets?

But here's part of the end of the article:

Giffords is making space history in her own way: She's the first member of Congress to be married to an astronaut bound for space. A few members of Congress have rocketed into orbit, and astronauts have gone on to become politicians, most famously John Glenn. But no politician of that stature has watched from the sidelines before with such a vested interest.

She is a member of the House Science and Technology Committee, as well as the Armed Services Committee.

"I guess there's always a first for everything," Giffords, 37, said. "But I'm here strictly as the spouse today. I'm not here as a member of Congress. I'm here to make sure that I'm like heading up the ground support team."

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The couple met in China in 2003 during a young leaders' forum and married in November after a long-distance romance. Kelly lives in Houston, NASA's astronaut base. Giffords splits her time between Washington and Tucson, Ariz., with frequent visits to Houston.

Kelly, 44, has described their lives as "busy."

"It's all we've ever known," he said.