Photos taken during her recovery were released earlier in June on /*Facebook*/.
Monday night Giffords took part in a NASA awards ceremony in Houston. Giffords received a standing ovation in front of a crowd of hundreds, and reportedly stood up from her wheelchair to hug and kiss her husband, astronaut /*Mark Kelly*/, after he received the Spaceflight Medal.
It was Giffords' first public appearance since January. The 41-year-old Democrat has been in the Houston area undergoing rehabilitation since several weeks after the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson that left her and 12 others wounded and six people dead.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
