Fell apart. Lessee. It had a hole in its wing and survived how many minutes of entry? Then when it lost control it held together for 40 seconds going at Mach 15 or higher? And then the forebody held together for another 40 seconds--going at Mach 15--and then the crew module itself held together for another 10 or twenty seconds? I'll take those engineers any day. In my mind, that's freaking impressive when all factors are considered. And they blame the loss of cabin pressure with lack of restraints as a secondary possibility for the death of the astronauts. Read the CAIB report if you want to determine where to point the finger. And it does point fingers.

at 63,000 is the Armstrong Line or Armstrong Limit. The oxygen in your blood "boils" out, in that it turns into vapor. Now, let's see, air we breathe passes in and out of our lungs...see a problem here? What a rapid decompression results in is damage to the lungs (and heart and CNS). No delicate way to put it. The lungs "explode". Now, let's not think Hollywood special effects. Each little--okay, many--little airsacs in the lungs rupture from differential pressure. This is called ebullism. For you reference folk, check out Wikipedia Armstrong Limit, although the entry there isn't entirely correct, or more accurately, complete. More importantly check out its 2nd reference. Here is the reference for simplicity: http://www.geoffreylandis.com/ebullism.html It's not crap, folk. It's physics.