“I am looking forward to rejoining my STS-134 crew members and finishing our training for the mission,” Kelly said in a statement. “We have been preparing for more than 18 months, and we will be ready to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station and complete the other objectives of the flight. I appreciate the confidence that my NASA management has in me and the rest of my space shuttle crew.”

Kelly said he made his decision after thinking about “the mission, my crew, the fact I’ve been training for it for nearly a year and a half.”

He also said he kept in mind what his wife would want him to do, and what their family members thought was best.

Those who know the couple well say it’s no surprise that Kelly will make the April flight.

“It’s 100 percent what she would want him to do. I had no doubt through this nightmare that that would be the decision that would be made,” said Nelson Miller, a friend of the couple and former Navy Seal.

Miller, who had dinner with Kelly before Giffords left Tucson, said that neither Kelly nor Giffords would want to let down the crew with whom he’s been training for months.

“He’s a navy fighter pilot, for God’s sake,” Miller said. “I’m sure that was part of it as well.”

“Gabby would be furious with Mark if he didn’t go,” said Jane Poytner, chairwoman and president of Paragon Space Development Corporation and another close friend of the pair. “He’s an astronaut. She married an astronaut. This is his life. She’s out of critical care, she has the best care in the country, and she has her friends and family. As hard as it would be, if he didn’t go, she would be really upset.”

Giffords was the target of a failed assassination attempt last month in Tucson, Ariz., in which she was shot in the head and six other people were killed. She was moved last week from Arizona to a rehabilitation clinic in Houston, where Kelly lives.

The severe injuries Giffords sustained in the Tucson shootings had left in doubt whether Kelly would be able to command the space shuttle, but the source made clear all systems are go for him to lead the mission, scheduled to lift off on April 19.

The space flight will be Kelly’s fourth. His twin brother, Scott, is also an astronaut and is currently commanding the six-person team orbiting Earth in the International Space Station.