Hah! Fun question. While I think if you ripped the solar panels and other instrumentation off you could _just_ fit the Salyut in the Shuttle payload bay it was

Hah! Fun question. While I think if you ripped the solar panels and other instrumentation off you could _just_ fit the Salyut in the Shuttle payload bay it was too heavy for a safe return trip. But, I think the Salyut's orbit would have required a USSR launch? Unless alternate history humanity made a truly humongous specialty retrieval craft and inclination changes meant nothing to it. :)