The Legend of NASA's "Space Pen" for a Million Dollars

Everyone has heard the historical anecdote about how the Americans, preparing for flights into space, spent a million dollars to develop a pen that would write in weightlessness, and sly Russians used ordinary pencils?

Well, you already heard it. Those who heard it before said “accordion”, and those who did not hear also said “accordion” in order to keep up with the first ones.
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And everything would have been fun if it had not turned out that it was the Soviet Union that had to later buy these pens for its space program, and that the development really cost the Americans considerable expenses, which later paid off.

How it all began

The Americans have another anecdote on the near cosmic theme:
on an excursion to NASA, one greedy Jew (from political correctness, we say that not all Jews are greedy, but this one was exactly like that) climbed into the cabin of a spacecraft and did not want to go out; and when he was asked what he was doing there, the Jew replied: "I admire - I can not believe that all this was bought at the lowest price"

Indeed, the main task of NASA is the classic project management.
Thousands of contractors, subcontractors, sub-subcontractors develop everything - from the fly on the astronaut's suit, to the launch vehicles. And naturally, the selection of partners NASA holds on a competitive basis, arranging tenders.

I can already hear how, at the word “tender,” experts in domestic business began to smile, think about kickbacks, kickbacks from kickbacks, bribes with greyhounds of puppies and other surprising features inherent in our business mentality. Yes, and they, in the west, go no better.

"Working with NASA is prestigious, though not always profitable."

Probably it was exactly like that in the distant 60s that Paul Fisher (Paul C. Fisher) thought - the inventor and owner of the Fisher Pen Co company, who invented a pen capable of writing in weightlessness.

Before that, both Americans and Russians (who were Soviet) astronauts wrote with pencils, felt-tip pens and glass recorders.

The problem was that pencils, whatever they were, have a tendency to break. Small particles formed during a breakdown can cause a lot of trouble on a ship, where pure oxygen was mixed into the air at that time.

Paul Fisher spent on the development of the "space handle" Whole Lot of Money his personal money, received a patent for the invention and provided the result to NASA.

Astronaut Richard Gordon collects a device created with the money of honest taxpayers (1969)

Question: how?

How can Fisher's “cosmic pen” write in zero gravity, under water, at any angle, at temperatures from −35 to 120 ° C and have a shelf life of more than 100 years ?

The secret is in special inks, which have thixotropic properties: in the normal state, they are solid, but when written become liquid. The pressure in the ink cartridge creates compressed gas, and the ball is made of tungsten carbide, which is comparable in hardness to diamond.

Beginning of the legend

Fisher's Space Pen (also known as the Zero Gravity Pen) has been tested at NASA for almost two years. And in 1967, NASA purchased 400 pieces for the price of only $ 6 per piece.

But up to this point, American astronauts wrote with automatic pencils from Tycam Engineering Manufacturing Inc that cost about $ 130 each (and all because NASA allocated $ 4,400 for development, but only 38 pencils were used all the time).

It is because of the price of these "space pencils" that a legend has arisen that NASA spent a million on developing a pen capable of writing in space.

The legend reflected the popular belief that NASA spends a lot of money and loves to invent a bicycle at a budget expense; but Russians are such simple guys in felt boots and earflaps go into outer space.

In fact, in February 1969, the Soviet Union purchased 100 Fisher pens and another 1,000 cartridges for them, for their space program, Soyuz. “Space pens” were used in the Soyuz-Apollo joint program with the United States.

Cosmonauts have not refused Space Pen, and still use them, probably, for solving crossword puzzles or for pressing the Reset button on the on-board computer.

The crew of the Soyuz-Apollo program from left to right: Slayton, Stafford, Brand, Leonov, Kubasov

For many years, the classic AG7 model of the Space Handle Fisher has been exhibiting as an excellent design example at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.