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.
[2][3] Like most urban legends, 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.
[2][3] 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
[3][4][5] – eventually began purchasing such pens.
NASA programs previously used pencils
[6] (for example a 1965 order of
mechanical pencils[7]) but because of the substantial dangers that broken pencil tips and graphite dust pose to electronics in zero gravity, the flammable nature of wood present in pencils,
[7] and the inadequate
quality documentation produced by
non-permanent or smeared recordkeeping, a better solution was needed. Russian cosmonauts used pencils, and
grease pencils on plastic
slates until also adopting a space pen in 1969 with a purchase of 100 units for use on all future missions.
[8] NASA never approached Paul Fisher to develop a pen, nor did Fisher receive any government funding for the pen's development.
[7] Fisher invented it independently and then, in 1965, asked NASA to try it. After extensive testing, NASA decided to use the pens in future Apollo missions.
[6][8][9] Subsequently, in 1967 it was reported that NASA purchased approximately 400 pens for $6 a piece.
[8]
