Arizona shooting may affect NASA shuttle programme

Kelly is scheduled to be the flight commander aboard the shuttle Endeavour when it makes the last,currently scheduled shuttle flight in April.

NASA has said it may operate one additional flight before ending the programme,but that remains uncertain.

With Giffords lying in an Arizona hospital with a critical head wound,and facing months of rehabilitation if she pulls through — an outcome doctors see as increasingly likely — there is a chance Kelly will step down from the mission to remain at his wife’s side.

NASA officials said that,for now,Kelly hasn’t been ruled in,or out,for STS-134 — the official name of Endeavour’s final mission.

US Rep Pete Olson said he talked to the director of the Johnson Space Centre,Houston,about the shooting. He said Giffords’ recovery,not the April flight,is the focus.

“They’re not worried about the mission at all,” Olson said.

“From what I got on Mike,they’re not thinking about that. They are thinking and focused on Mark Kelly and Congresswoman Gabby Giffords,my good friend.”

NASA said it is way too early to talk about Kelly’s flight. The space agency said the focus should be on Giffords’ recovery.

“It’s just too early to speculate,” a spokesperson for the space agency told the Web site Space.com.

“Right now the focus is on Mark and Scott (Kelly’s twin brother,currently aboard the International Space Station),and of course,the victims and their families. For the time being,everything is day by day.”

Regardless of the outcome,Kelly’s background will doubtless help him cope with the stress he is facing as he monitor’s his wife’s condition.

The former Navy pilot is a veteran of 39 combat missions flown during Operation Desert Storm.

The West Orange,New Jersey native also graduated with the highest honours from the US Merchant Marine Academy. Kelly and Giffords married in 2007.

Endeavour is scheduled to lift off on STS-134 on April 1,to deliver communications equipment and spare parts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission was pushed back due to problems with STS-133,which will see Discovery make its final flight. NASA is hoping to launch Discovery in late February,after cancelling previous launch attempts due to cracks found in the orbiter’s external fuel tank.

NASA intends to end the shuttle program in 2011. Last year,President Obama asked the space agency to turn missions to the ISS over to private contractors,including Space Exploration Technologies Inc,and focus instead on long range plans like eventually launching a manned mission to Mars.

After that launch,in less than three months,Navy Capt Mark Kelly is expected to command the last scheduled flight of a space shuttle.