Ars has a pretty fantastic write up on the whole thing [1]. Seems like beyond getting Atlantis into orbit, it would have required creating whole-cloth procedure

Ars has a pretty fantastic write up on the whole thing [1]. Seems like beyond getting Atlantis into orbit, it would have required creating whole-cloth procedures for EVAs for extracting astronauts from a Shuttle and doing it with a skeleton crew of four people, which, even then, would have led to serious space issues on re-entry. And even with all of that, was the question of, could Atlantis launch without the same insulation damage issue arising? Given that they hadn't prepared any mitigation strategies yet, the answer was "no" and under those conditions, the Shuttle is grounded. How awful would it have been to lose Columbia AND Atlantis? 1: http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue-plan-that-might-have-saved-space-shuttle-columbia/ http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/02/the-audacious-rescue-...