[FPSPACE] Energia Booster LH2 Engine Origin Question

[JamesOberg@aol.com]

This may have been discussed before, sorry if I missed it.

I'm just finishing an essay on Energia/Buran, what may have been copied, what 
stolen, what was developed domestically based on specific requirements and 
traditions.

But the big liquid hydrogen engine still worries me. That's an ENORMOUS 
technological leap to make for a country whose technology didn't use that 
sort of thing -- except one smaller engine built for the N-1  twenty years 
earlier, that never flew, right?

Other nations have built small LH2 engines -- Germany, Japan, China. Is 
building a BIG one all that more difficult from a standing start, or did 
Russia need help from US documents, US hardware, perhaps even US personnel?

So I'm asking engine experts out there, is it reasonable that the Energia LH2 
engines sprang full-grown from the Russian space infrastructure, entirely 
independently?

Jim Oberg