brother, othscott, and mark is expected to command what will be the last space shuttle flight, historic moment in april and, of course he wanted to be part of that. nasa s named a veteran astronaut as a potential replacement if one is needed and would have to be in the preparation mode, in case he can t make it and allows the crew to continue training while kelly focuses on giffords recovery and has been by her side through this entire thing and we watched him sitting next to mrs. obama during the memorial the other night and we are told that kelly encouraged nasa to try to find a backup, in case he is not able to make the mission. rick: as for the latest details on the congresswoman s condition, we would like you to go to fox news.com, where we have up to the minute coverage of the tragedy in tucson and those who are now intertwined with it. you can find it there. martha: all right, and politics now, g.o.p. head michael steele waits to learn his fate.
with her. that s when she started to open her eyes and respond to us. and it was just absolutely incredible. i mean, she mark started to, you know, tell her, gabby, if you can see me, give me the thumbs up sign. and he encouraged her and pushed her to do that. she kept opening her eyes a little bit more and more. suddenly her arm went up when he asked her to give the thumbs up, and she touched his arm and his ring as he asked her. it was just chris, i was we were all just overcome with emotion. it was incredible. incredible. and hardball with chris matthews airs weeknights at 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. on msnbc, the place for politics. nasa has a backup plan in place in case captain mark kelly, the commander of the final space shuttle flight, cannot fly because of the condition of his wife, congresswoman gabrielle giffords. kelly has been training for well over a year for the april launch of endeavour. with his wife recovering from a gunshot wound to the head from the tucson shooti
mark the 25th anniversary of the space shuttle flight to include the first muslim in space with a member of saudi royalty, of course. it seems odd that this is nasa s job to reach out to the muslim world. they are supposed to be exploring space. let us know what you think. we told you about the new white house chief of staff and whether he will push the president to the left. the next guest will have an idea. he was president bush s chief of staff. and be genetic. what that could mean for millions of kids . mmmmmm. mmmmmm. wow! you have got to be kidding me.
the half hour right now. general david petraeuses taking command in afghanistan. he ll arrive later today, nine days after his predecessor general stanley mcchrystal was relieved of his duties. petraeus arrival in afghanistan is marked by rivals. nasa extending its shuttle countdown. the space agency making it official the last space shuttle flight is scheduled for february of next year. the flight was originally scheduled for november but pushed back because of technical difficulties. now that former hurricane alex has lost its punch and the waves are calming, crews in the gulf are hoping to get back to the oil spill today. the head of the epa will also be in louisiana for a town hall meeting and to oversee how bp is managing the cleanup. the mother of all skimmers, a converted super tanker named
we talked about this being a history-making journey in another sense because there are four women, now, in space. as somebody called it, extraterrestrial girl power. [laughter] what s going on? yes. three aboard this space shuttle flight, one already on the space station, so we ll have four women in space for the first time ever, and the interesting thing is what you re seeing is part of a larger trend. if you go to engineering conferences, space science conferences, the gender balance has totally shifted. so whether it s nasa or private industry, you re going to see a very different-looking group of people up in space. jane: and their ages were interesting, a couple of them were in their 40s. you d expect them to be young and in incredible shape. every year that age starts looking younger and younger. [laughter] jane: there s still a shot for the rest of us. good to see you, corey. gregg, down to you. greg jane, thanks very much. about an hour from now tiger woods is going to be i