Editing Space Shuttle Columbia (section)

===Planned future===
[[File:STS-109 launch.jpg|thumb|Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' STS-109(HST-3B) launch, its final successful mission]]

Had ''Columbia'' not been destroyed, it would have been fitted with the [[Androgynous Peripheral Attach System#APAS-95|external airlock/docking adapter]] for [[STS-118]], an [[International Space Station]] assembly mission, originally planned for November 2003. ''Columbia'' was scheduled for this mission due to ''Discovery'' being out of service for its Orbital Major Modification, and because the ISS assembly schedule could not be adhered to with only ''Endeavour'' and ''Atlantis''.

''Columbia'''s career would have started to wind down after [[STS-118]]. It was to service the [[Hubble Space Telescope]] two more times between 2004 and 2005. Following the ''Columbia'' accident, NASA flew the [[STS-125]] mission using ''[[Space Shuttle Atlantis|Atlantis]]'', combining the planned fourth and fifth servicing missions into one final mission to Hubble. Because of the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, the batteries and gyroscopes that keep the telescope pointed will eventually fail, which would result in its reentry and breakup in Earth's atmosphere.  A "Soft Capture Docking Mechanism", based on the docking adapter that was to be used on the [[Orion (Constellation program)|Orion spacecraft]], was installed during the last servicing mission in anticipation of this event.