> I don't think a successful crew capsule abort would be likely past a couple of hundred miles per hour. If that.

That's not true at all. Every manned space launcher has provisions for bringing the crew down safely on a suborbital trajectory if orbit can't be reached. You would hardly give up on your astronauts just because, say, some stage failed to light. It's not like with an unmanned satellite, where it either gets to orbit or crashes/burns up.

Apollo certainly had provisions for crew abort all the way to orbit, which are discussed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_abort_modes