NASA Could Have Rescued Columbia Astronauts in Space

NASA now believes they could have launched the space shuttle Atlantis and four veteran astronauts to rescue the crew of Columbia had they realized the danger earlier. In the days after the February 1 tragedy, NASA said there was nothing that could have been done to fix Columbia’s wing, but the shuttle investigation board asked the agency to figure out what they could have done if they had known about the damage. Columbia’s 16 days of supplies could have been stretched to 30 to give time to mount a rescue mission.