Extended suffering
Someone has probably brought up this rather morbid point before, but if they had conformation of the damage, and knew what was going to happen, could they have just stayed in orbit and died in space?
I hate to sound like a Vulcan but their maybe their bodies could be recovered and the shuttle repaired and brought back?
Not unlike a submarine accident. I think I'd rather 'go' looking out the window of the Columbia at the big blue then struggle in the cold miserable darkness of the Kursk in my final hours.