[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

I read somewhere that Columbia was not capable of flying high enough to dock with the ISS due to some kind of technological impediment.

Where do you think it was for the past 16 days?

[John Jamieson]

Flying a space hab in the payload bay. Mini station that goes up and down. Down seems to have been the problem.

[Preech1]

It wasn't at the ISS..this was the first mission in a while that was not intended to dock at the space station. Just science experiments in the payload bay.

[mewzilla]

It didn't dock with the ISS on this mission, and couldn't have if they'd wanted to. No docking ring on board.

[Alberta's Child]

Do you have any evidence that the Columbia had docked with the ISS while it was in orbit?

The ISS crew was scheduled to be rotated out during a mission later this month (maybe the Discovery?) -- None of the video feeds I've seen of this shuttle mission show any interaction between this crew and a member of the ISS crew.

[adaven]

Where do you think it was for the past 16 days?

Nowhere near the IIS.

[Campion]

Where do you think it was for the past 16 days?

Columbia was not docked with the ISS; it was in a different and lower orbit doing experiments with the Spacehab module.

Columbia was heavier than the newer orbiters, and couldn't get up to the ISS's orbital altitude under any circumstances. Also, on this mission, its orbit was at a totally different inclination.

[RasterMaster]

Columbia had a "refit" to update to current technology. Perhaps there was a defect in materials or labor during this time of retrofit 1999/2000?