Rep. Giffords's Spacey Party

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) is a little less spaced out now that her husband is back on planet Earth.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and husband Cmdr. Mark Kelly. (Courtesy Gabrielle Giffords)

The newlywed congresswoman is so proud of her husband, Cmdr. Mark E. Kelly, who commanded last month's space shuttle mission to the International Space Station, she's throwing a party for him tonight on Capitol Hill.

"Please join me in celebrating the shuttle program, the cornerstone of NASA over the past three decades set to phase out by 2010, and the talented crew that makes it come to life," Giffords wrote Tuesday in an email invitation to House colleagues.

Giffords is co-hosting the party with Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.), whose district is home to the Kennedy Space Center. (The reception will be a nice reprieve for Feeney, who's getting pummeled in his reelection race for his infamous 2003 golf trip to Scotland with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is now in prison.)

Giffords tells us she plans to serve "space-themed cookies and gummy shuttles" at the party. But, don't worry, mission control, there will be no space cake (a favorite of drug-crazed tourists in Amsterdam, where, unlike in Washington, it's actually legal).

The congresswoman says the party is less about her husband than it is about recognizing the overall accomplishments of NASA and the entire crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-124. She cites this year's NASA reauthorization bill, which passed the House by a large bipartisan majority, 409-15.

Tonight's party was organized by NASA's office of legislative affairs. The highlight will surely be the video that Commander Kelly will provide of the mission, which included three space walks.