Never Surrender: Mark Kelly Keynote Speech at The PPAI Expo 2012

There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Mark Kelly, astronaut, U.S. Navy captain, author and husband of congresswoman Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords, read the "just in case our mission fails and I don't come home" letter he'd written to his wife, Gabby Giffords, prior to piloting the final mission of space shuttle Endeavour. He explained to the audience of distributors that for astronauts there is a 1 in 57 chance of not making it back from space travel. However, these are odds he is well aware of and has accepted in his line of work. His wife however, had the odds of survival thrust upon her when just four months prior to Endeavour's final lift-off, she was the victim of a failed assassination attempt. On this day, nearly one year ago, at the hands of the accused gunman Jared Loughner, Gabby suffered a gunshot wound to the head and six others were fatally wounded.