[HiTech RedNeck]

Was there any other craft that could have been sent out there to pick up the astronauts, if they knew this thing was going to have problems landing?

[discostu]

The other shuttle(s? I forget how many there are). Problem is there's not a whole lot of spare room for people, probably would have taken two trips. With the space station up there an Apollo 13 type situation isn't nearly so ugly, there's someplace people can wait for months if need be. If they do decide it's the insulation hit on the wing there will probably be some serious rethinking on what to do in bad situations. Given that the shuttle is mostly piloted by the computer anyway they could drop the people in the station and empty run the shuttle down, then if something bad happens it's just money.