[boomboomsubban]

The USSR's nuclear espionage helped their bomb project, but it was not essential. They more used it to check their own work, and likely stopped some detours on the road. And if their space technology was "borrowed" from the Germans, so was the US's.

[PerfectDlite]

> The USSR's nuclear espionage helped their bomb project, but it was not essential.

Definitely! They've steal US nuclear documents just for laughs, comrade!

[avmich]

Tu-144 flew before Concord. Try to explain to some people that it's hard to get a pure copy running before the original :) - I'm not surprised anymore, they'd still insist Tu-144 is merely a copy.

When Project Apollo uses Yu. Kondratyuk's (A. Shargey) staging calculations of course that's not a copying of a critical part.

[PerfectDlite]

> Tu-144 flew before Concord.

"The aircraft was introduced into passenger service on 1 November 1977, almost two years after Concorde, because of budget restrictions."

Yes, they've managed to "overcame bourgeous West" with Tu-144, but because design and production was rushed - they got Paris air show crash, postponed operational services and generally bad design, forcing earlier retirement for Tu-144.

[boomboomsubban]

That isn't what I said. The steps necessary for making a bomb were known to Soviet scientists, the information stolen saved them some trouble of discovering which methods worked best. Valuable, but not essential.