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I don't think Columbia had a docking collar, did they even have spacesuits on board? If not, they wouldn't have been able to get to the Soyuz to extract anythin

I don't think Columbia had a docking collar, did they even have spacesuits on board? If not, they wouldn't have been able to get to the Soyuz to extract anything. You'd have to send up at least one person one the Soyuz to pass the spacesuits into the shuttle airlock. Also, I'm not sure Columbia had a manipulator arm installed at the time. It's heavy and they don't fly with it when they're not going to use it.

avmich 13y ago
Yes, there are problems. Soyuz could fly pretty close to Columbia, but to get to the bay could be tricky. It was not going to be a regular docking - but something for a saving mission. If Soyuz could be taken to the Columbia bay, an astronaut in the Columbia spacesuit could approach Soyuz and open the hatch. Spacesuits could be extracted from Soyuz without entering the spacecraft. Talk about ingenious ideas with rope, attached to the front hatch, etc. The Soyuz spacesuit then is delivered to inside Columbia, where somebody could wear it to get to Soyuz.