Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2017 12:09:45 GMT
They admitted to knowing Columbia's crew were going to die, and chose not to tell them that their shuttle had been damaged in a manner that compromised their ability to re-enter Earth's atmosphere, and doing so would result in them blowing up. They thought it better to die without knowing, than circling the planet until they died with no chance of help.
Not quite. Nasa didn't know the shuttle would burn up on re-entry at all - they knew it might, and chose not to tell the crew about that possibility.