Quite a few arms control discoveries have been made by civilians using open source satellite imagery. For example, US citizens discovered the massive new missile silo complexes that China has been building. They have identified rocket motor static test burns in Iran,and preparations for missile test launches at the Novaya Zemlya test facility in Russia.
I think you meant to add 'public' in there somewhere. I'm sure the large well-funded governments were well aware of all of this stuff before the public, it's their job after all.
Won't help. We're already in a feedback loop releasing tons of methane from permafrost. Methane is 28 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It is already out of out if our control.
I am an engineer without aerospace experience. However, In my experience, when several identical valves fail in the same service enviromment, you have made a design mistake. Valves with packing leaks make it a sophomoric design error.
Yet, this craft was ready to launch. What else might wrong with it?
