By the time the astronaut is seeing fire out his window. He would not be able to be communicating with ground control. As the spacecraft reenters the atmosphere and the outside of craft heats. Ionization occurs and radio traffic is impossible.
When Astronaut Gaines goes to his house from the hospital the first time, he is wearing Colonel grades on his shoulders. Later, he is wearing Colonel grades on his shirt. He is surprised when he looks in the mirror and the photograph and sees that he is wearing Colonel grades. There is no way he would have walked out of the hospital wearing the wrong grades if he was a Major.
When Gaines' wife kisses him, she realizes that he is not her real husband, similarly, his daughter senses that he is not her real father. Gaines, however, has no such strange experiences of them, even though they are not his real wife and daughter.