[Swordmaker]

It would seem a member of the crew could have been tethered and taken a look at the damage. If the call was made that it was unsafe, why not dock with the space station, and send down as many people as possible with the ISS rescue pod? Sure it leaves no failsafe for whoever is left behind, but it gives more chance for survival. Hopefully, those left of the ISS would have enough life support to last until another shuttle rescues them, or some other rockets are sent to take them home.

Docking with the International Space Station was out of the question. There is not enough fuel in the Orbital Manuvering Units to change the orbit that much. Docking with the ISS requires a launch with that intent.

The ISS should have sufficient rescue pods for an entire shuttle crew, and the ISS crew.

They should have sufficient "life boat" capacity for the anticipated crew load including shift change... or they will suffer from the "Titanic Syndrone." Escape pods for the Shuttles was considered and rejected for reasons of cost and payload capacity: If they were included in the design, the system would not have worked.

[John Jamieson]

The original designs also had jet engines to fly home!

[TheDon]

In that case, they have no excuse for launching Columbia.