Watch as Local News Channel Captures Rep. Giffords Walking!

Local station KTRK-TV in Houston caught an incredible and inspiring image today: recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords boarding a plane, under her own power, to attend the shuttle launch her husband will command on Friday:

KHOU-TV reports:

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was seen publicly for the first time since a January shooting Wednesday when she boarded a NASA flight to Florida. She's headed to Cape Canaveral to watch Endeavour's final launch.

Giffords’ husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, is commanding the mission.

Giffords arrived with a group of people – including a nurse from TIRR Memorial Hermann – in a dark-colored SUV around 9 a.m.

The vehicle drove right up to a waiting NASA plane, and Giffords – guided by a second person—walked up the stairs into the aircraft.

Giffords has been in an intensive rehabilitation program at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston for months, recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. She was shot at a political event in Tucson on January 8. Six people were killed.

KHOU captured the arrival from a different angle:

(H/T: Mediaite)