CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. (AP) - Astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth wearing a wristband for his sister-in-law, the wounded Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
In a NASA photo, Kelly displays the turquoise wristband with a peace sign, a heart and the name “Gabby” shortly after landing in Kazakhstan on Wednesday from the International Space Station.
The crew of space shuttle Discovery carried it up to the space station last month, said NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem.
Kelly’s identical twin brother Mark wore an identical wristband when he announced last month that he was resuming training for a shuttle flight in April. Mark Kelly is commander of shuttle Endeavour’s last flight. His wife is undergoing rehabilitation at a hospital in Houston, where he is training.
Scott Kelly was space station commander for more than five months. He was aboard the orbiting complex when Giffords was shot in the head on Jan. 8 in Tucson, Ariz.
Giffords intern Ryan Pont said he and another intern came up with the idea for the wristbands after seeing a sign at a makeshift memorial outside her Tucson office that read: “Peace, love, Gabby.”
The office got a company to make the wristbands, and have sold nearly 14,000 of them. They sell for $1 at various events in Tucson, and sell online for $2 at peacelovegabby.com.
So far, sales from the wristbands have raised nearly $10,000, which will fund a scholarship at Arizona State University in the name of Gabe Zimmerman, a Giffords’ staffer killed in the mass shooting.
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AP Writer Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report from Phoenix.
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Online:
NASA: https://www.nasa.gov
Wristbands: https://www.peacelovegabby.com
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