Quote:
|
Originally Posted by KTorak
My best guess would be keeping the crew at ISS and asking for another favor from Russia, or another country planning a mission in the coming weeks/months.
|
Only one spacecraft could carry an entire shuttle crew back; that is, of course, another shuttle (crew capacity is up to ten, if so equipped). If Discovery needed rescue, another shuttle could be launched with a crew of two or three (with two being the minimum—unlike Buran, shuttles can't fly unmanned); I seriously doubt they would let a little thing like pieces of foam stand in the way of a rescue. By the way, the ISS is not equipped for long-duration occupancy by a shuttle crew—it would require several more shuttle flights to attach additional modules, and many more years (with the most optimistic scheduling) to even approach that sort of capacity.
As for other nations, China's in no condition to mount a rescue, given that they only have the Shenzhou (3 occupants, but only flown unmanned and with one aboard), and one manned spaceflight in total. Russia has only Soyuz (3 occupants), of which several would be needed—it is possible, though not especially likely that Russia has any spaceworthy Soyuz craft ready to launch. You'd need three flights between the Soyuz and the Shenzhou. (And please, nobody suggest any of the X-Prize entries....)
But of course, there are no reports of significant damage to the shuttle. Just the potential for trouble during the future launches.