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To: al_c
Sure there was. Dock at the space station and return on the Soyuz capsule.

Not possible! First of all the space station was at a higher altitude than the shuttle had fuel to reach ....meaning basically the shuttle could not reach the station.

Secondly (even if it could reach) the shuttle Columbia did not have a docking mechanism to meld witht he station, and there would have been no way for the astronauts to bail ship.

The shuttle was doomed the moment it lifted off.

257 posted on 02/03/2003 7:41:16 AM PST by spetznaz (When i say i am perfect people say i am arrogant .....but i am just being darn honest!)
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To: spetznaz
"The shuttle was doomed the moment it lifted off."

Sadly, in this case that seems to be true. One possibility, if the damage could have been analyzed very quickly and a determination made that the shuttle couldn't reenter the earths atmosphere they could have aborted and landed back at the cape or another site. In this case this was not possible because the potential damage was not noted until the video tape was analyzed the next day.

270 posted on 02/03/2003 7:47:22 AM PST by lstanle
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