Why not change their names, though? I can buy that the disaster didn't actually have any casualties and was a big psy-op to get the public to lose their enthusiasm for space (after it turned out to be much harder to do anything in space than anyone predicted). I can buy that the initial moon landing was made-up. I can buy lots of things. But leaving all of the supposed casualties out there with the exact same names? WTF. Their names would have been changed and they would have been given new identities ala witness protection.
Not saying it's impossible, just saying it is a level of sloppiness that this government doesn't do.