To fly on the space shuttle while his wife is recovering from a bullet wound to the head, astronaut Mark Kelly will have to call on his years of experience compartmentalizing his feelings and focusing on the job at hand.
Kelly's wife, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot Jan. 8 at a constituent meeting in Tucson, Ariz. Six people were killed and 19 wounded, including Giffords. Today (Feb. 4) Kelly announced that he will go through with his planned mission of flying aboard the space shuttle Endeavour's final mission in April.
While some might not be able to contemplate participating in such a complex mission at such a time, Kelly said he considered what was best for NASA and Endeavour's STS-134 mission, as well as for himself and his family.
He said he put aside personal considerations, such as the fact that this is his last chance to fly on another space shuttle mission, as well as any anger he felt about his wife's situation or a desire to resume a normal life.
"What I used to evaluate whether I first want to come back has little to do, or nothing to do, with being angry and everything to do with what is right for NASA first and then for me and my family," Kelly said during today's press conference.
"You learn to separate the mission from things that might be going on in your personal life," Kelly said. "I've been doing that for 24 years."
"This time it might be more challenging at times to do that," he said.
"This week I demonstrated, to myself even, that I was able to do that," Kelly said. "It told me that in this situation I am able to do that compartmentalization which I have been practicing for 24 years."
"He's in a difficult situation. When something like this happens, it's a traumatic event," Mark Kelly said of his brother. "He wants to be helpful" but he struggles with being so far away.
Meanwhile, NASA said Mark Kelly's first week back at work was also a chance for the space agency to evaluate Mark Kelly and confirm that he would be able to devote his full attention to the mission, both during training and in space.
"It was important to know he would be able to focus during training and not be distracted by Gabrielle's situation up at the hospital," said Brent Jett, chief of NASA's flight crew operations directorate.
"We weren't going to ask him to command 134 unless he felt comfortable and ready to do that," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the astronaut office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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