Giffords heads for Fla. to watch shuttle

HOUSTON, April 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords left a Houston rehab center Wednesday for a short trip to Florida to watch her husband launch into space.

A National Aeronautics and Space Administration jet ferried the Democratic Arizona congresswoman to Florida, KOLD-TV in Tucson reported. Mark Kelly, her husband, is commander on the final mission of the space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to lift off Friday from Cape Canaveral.

Giffords was transferred to TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston a few days after she was shot in the head in January while talking to constituents outside a Tucson supermarket. An Arizona college dropout, Jared Loughner, has been charged with shooting Giffords and 18 other people, killing six of them.

Family, friends and her staff say Giffords has been making remarkable progress. Video of her departure showed she walked up the steps to the plane with some help.

Kelly told CBS in an interview that Giffords pumped the air and said "awesome" when he told her she was cleared to travel to Cape Canaveral.