Thinking we should shy away from topics because they're sensitive is stupid. Obviously it's a tragedy that lives were lost, that's horrible under any circumstances, but that doesn't mean what happened shouldn't be discussed. If I died doing my job and people thought something suspicious had happened, I would damn well hope they would question and talk about it rather than sweeping it under the rug and shooting down any attempts to discuss.
I also don't understand Thork and Rushy's positions. Why would they be launching people like that when space travel is impossible? I would have to agree with Tom, in that NASA probably saw what happened, detained those who were supposedly in it, and...well, I'm not sure they executed them like Tom thinks, but they might have had to assume false identities from there on out. They knew it was fake as well, so it's not like they'd have to force them.