Gabrielle Giffords, wife to astronaut, to lead House space panel

[bananas]

There's a nice photo with the article.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2009/01/lawmaker-giffords-wife-to-astronaut-to-lead-house-space-panel-.html

Lawmaker Giffords, wife to astronaut, to lead House space panel
posted by Mark Matthews on Jan 22, 2009 4:35:37 PM

WASHINGTON -- An Arizona lawmaker married to a NASA astronaut is expected to lead the U.S. House panel that has direct oversight of the space agency, according to congressional sources.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made history last year when she became the first member of Congress to watch a spouse blast into space. Now the wife of space shuttle commander Mark Kelly will hold the gavel for the Space and Aeronautics subcommittee, a division of the House science committee.

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Since being elected to Congress in 2006, the former state lawmaker and Democrat has risen to become one of NASA’s biggest boosters on Capitol Hill. At one point, her Washington office even sported countdown clocks for the Phoenix mission, which sent a probe to Mars to see whether life could survive there.

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Giffords and Kelly were married in fall 2007 after meeting one another on a trip to China for young leaders. She saw him launch from Kennedy Space Center last year aboard the shuttle Discovery, which delivered a Japanese module to the International Space Station.

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[Confusious]

1. WooHoo

Giffords is my REP!!