""Fact or Fiction?""

NASA Spent Millions on a Pen Able to Write in Space

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By Ciara Curtin

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During the height of the space race in the 1960s, legend has it, NASA scientists realized that pens could not function in zero gravity. They therefore spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars developing a ballpoint pen that put ink to paper without needing gravitational force to pull on the fluid. But their crafty Soviet counterparts, so the story goes, simply handed cosmonauts grease pencils. Did NASA really waste that much money?

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The Space Pencil

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Originally American astronauts, like the Soviets, wrote with pencils, according to NASA historians. Indeed, in 1965 NASA ordered 34 mechanical pencils from Tycam Engineering Manufacturing in Huston at $128.89 apiece: $4,382.50 in total. When this sums became public and caused an outcry, NASA scrambled to find a cheaper alternative.

Pencils may not have been the best choice anyway. The tips could flake or break off, drifting in microgravity where they might harm an astronaut or equipment. And pencils are flamable - a characteristic NASA wanted to avoid in onboard objects after the Apollo 1 fire.

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The Space-Age Ballpoint

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Meanwhile, Fisher Pen Company, had invested a reported $1 million ( none of it from NASA) to create what is now commonly known as the space pen. The device, could write upside down, in frigid or roasting conditions ( down to -50 degrees Fahrenheit or up to 400 degrees F), and even underwater or submersed in other liquids. [...]

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International Agreement

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An Associated Press dispatch from February 1968 reported that NASA ordered 400 of Fisher's antigravity ballpoint pens for the Apollo moon mission progam. A year later the Soviet Union ordered 100 pens and 1,000 ink cartriges to use on their Soyuz space missions, the United Press International said. The AP later noted that both NASA and Soviet space agency recieved the same 40 percent discount for buying their pens in bulk. They both paid $2.39 per pen instead of $3.98 - nowhere near millions.

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Source: Scientific American