[steveegg]

The Columbia was too heavy (being the first shuttle and structurally overbuilt) to reach the ISS, and did not have the docking equipment regardless.

That answers that question. Prototypes usually are overbuilt (remember when the external tank was painted?).

[Ramtek57]

Ok, maybe they couldn't haved docked with the space station. They could have parked by it and have one of the space staion guys to float over to them and get them.