by Breaking Celebrity News Staff

Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords has made her very first public appearance since being shot in a Tucson grocery store parking lot last January.

Giffords appeared in front of a crowd of hundreds at a NASA awards ceremony in Houston Monday night.

Giffords, 41, entered the auditorium at Space Center Houston while being pushed in a wheelchair. ABC News reports that she smiled and waved at the crowd and received a rousing standing ovation.

She was wearing glasses, a beige scarf, a light shirt, jeans and sneakers; her hair was much shorter than in a recently released photo posted on her Facebook page.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords With Her Family

Giffords stood up from her wheelchair to hug and kiss her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, after he received the Spaceflight Medal at the event. (The Spaceflight Medal is awarded to shuttle astronauts who return safely from their missions).