[Mo1]

There's no way another shuttle could have been launched in time. They're not airplanes; you can't just open the hangar door and have them off the ground twenty minutes later. It would have taken weeks.

EXACTLY!!

[Stingray51]

The operative time for getting the next shuttle ready to launch was not just prior to the reentry attempt, it was the same day the Columbia was launched. That would have left at least four weeks.

There seems to be a cadre of posters who is dismissive of any suggestion that the problem could have been addressed. Maybe so and maybe not, but we are not going to know either way for some time and relying on self-serving statements by NASA administrators that nothing could have been done is just as irresponsible as assuming it could.