[Political Junkie Too]

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin early on approved plans to have a second shuttle, Endeavour, ready for launch on a rescue mission just in case.

So, if this were ever to happen, what would it be like? A second shuttle would fly to the first shuttle to offload the crew? What would they do with the first shuttle after that?

Would they jettison the shuttle to burn up in the atmosphere? Would they attempt to put it in a stationary orbit until a future flight could repair it and land it? Would they try to move it to a new orbit that a future flight could then reach and still reach the ISS?

-PJ

[RightWhale]

What would they do with the first shuttle

Depends what is wrong with it. It is possible they could bring it back on autopilot.