In the immediate aftermath of the Columbiadisaster, NASA claimed that a last-minute rescue would have been virtually impossible. Shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said, "There was zero we could do about it."28 Within days, however, NASA officials began to backtrack from this gloomy admission of futility. According to NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, the agency would have made extraordinary efforts and devoted all of its resources to avoid catastrophe. "I fundamentally, absolutely reject the proposition that there was nothing that could be done on orbit,"29 he said.

At the request of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), NASA analyzed various potential rescue plans. It came up with a number of highly risky and at least remotely feasible plans, most prominently a meeting with the Atlantis that would have involved tethered rescuers bringing extra space suits to the Columbia and retrieving the crew. Such a plan could...