I always thought an interesting idea would be to launch an unmanned Soyuz to dock with Columbia. In 1960's Soyuzes were launched sometimes without orbital modu

I always thought an interesting idea would be to launch an unmanned Soyuz to dock with Columbia. In 1960's Soyuzes were launched sometimes without orbital module - project Zond; that's saving of about 15% of mass. Even if that wouldn't be sufficient, Zonds were launched on Protons with DM kicker - and that combination flew as far as over the Moon, so I'm sure it could match Columbia orbit inclination and height. Russians launch on average more often than anybody else, so they could pull that attempt. Problems are that Soyuz spacecraft takes 2 years to manufacture - but money could have helped there, especially in 2003, before oil prices made incomes larger in Russia. Protons were manufactured in larger quantities - may be more that 10 per year. Even with one Soyuz - for 3 crew - some Progress spacecrafts, which are built in larger numbers, could be added rather soon, maintaining the remaining Columbia crew until further options would become available. So, to sum this up - Russian spacecrafts could technically reach Columbia in 2003.