[Timesink]

Thats BS. They could have went to the ISS and waited for another shuttle to take them back.

No they couldn't! The Columbia was not equipped to dock with the ISS, and almost certainly didn't have enough fuel to get there even if they had docking ability.

[Prince Charles]

Would it have been possible to lower the orbit of the ISS down to a point where Columbia could have gotten near it? I don't know myself, but it seems like a possibility.

[spectre]

Heard a report yesterday, ONLY once, but it's worth repeating.

The report said that the Astronauts could NOT have done a space-walk, because they weren't trained to do so, and it wasn't that type of a mission.

But here's the important part. Person said that the outside of the Shuttle was smooth, with no handles for the Astronaut to hold on to while trying to make a repair. I was under the impression he was referring to the "Tile Area". The handles on the outside of the shuttle were expensive to install it's not "cost effective". IOW's they USED to have handles, so the Astronauts wouldn't float off into orbit.

Anyone else care to comment on this? And please, forgive my ignorance on this subject...if I didn't state this in a more cognizant way.

sw