No, the ars article talks about this. The orbital inclination of the doomed shuttle was so they could not reach the ISS, and likewise the Russian Soyuz could no

No, the ars article talks about this. The orbital inclination of the doomed shuttle was so they could not reach the ISS, and likewise the Russian Soyuz could not launch at a similar inclination. Changing orbits seems to burn obscene amounts of fuel. I don't fully understand why it would not have been possible to put a Soyuz in a different orbit but with a near-collision course though.