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Message: <blockquote data-quote="imhotep" data-source="post: 26159278" data-attributes="member: 562115">Certainly their fund management had issues and questionable. But the story about the Pencil isn't quite true. In fact both the US and Soviet astronauts used pencils. NASA came under fire as they bought pencils at a cost of more than $100 per pencil.NASA wasn't quite happy with Pencils as it created flakes, tips broke off and in microgravity this posed problems to equipment and pencils also are in the flammable items category. That's why they wanted a pen.The Fisher Pen company apparently invested $1 Million for a space pen development project. So it wasn't NASA funds at all. Fisher patented & produced a pen that could write upside-down, in frigid or roasting conditions (down to minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit or up to 400 degrees F), and even underwater or in other liquids. If too hot, though, the ink turned green instead of its normal blue.Afterwards they sold the Fisher AG-7 (Anti-Gravity) pen in bulk to NASA aroud $5 per piece. It was these that was used by NASA & the Soyuz missions. These had a pressurized Nitrogen cartridge (at 35 PSI) pushing the ink.Much later on, they had another version called the "Shuttle Pen" used in the US Shuttles and in the Mir Space Station.You can buy these on Amazon....</blockquote>

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