Originally Posted by Sycamore
It reminded me of a story from the space race in the 60s. Apparently the Americans spent $10 million trying to develop a biro type pen that would perform in zero gravity. The soviets used a pencil.
Ah that old chestnut.
A common urban legend states that NASA spent a large amount of money to develop a pen that would write in space (the result purportedly being the Fisher Space Pen), while the Soviets just used pencils. There is a grain of truth: NASA began to develop a space pen, but when development costs skyrocketed the project was abandoned and astronauts went back to using pencils, along with the Soviets. However, the claim that NASA spent millions on the Space Pen is incorrect, as the Fisher pen was developed using private capital, not government funding. NASA – and the Soviets - eventually began purchasing such pens.
You can buy one too!
Fisher Space Pen Co.