Not telling them was the kindest thing to do. That would’ve been my call, too.
It is the better decision to allow their deaths to be sudden and unexpected, than to have them anticipate a suffering before hand.
I think it was a terrible, cowardly, and shocking decision. The astronauts (and engineers on the ground) might have come up with alternatives if they had known and not been forced into a default give-up. Necessity truly is the mother of invention in situations like that. Recall Apollo 13 and how those astronauts and engineers beat the odds by improvising.
Who really knows what is truth and what is not...coming from Washington D.C.
I would have to let them know - I would want to know. If nothing else, it would give me a last chance to talk with my Lord and affirm my faith. What if one of them was on the verge of making a personal decision and hadn’t yet done it?