In the past few years, the NASA space pen story has become common knowledge. Or has it? I'll leave the details for Snopes. But the short version is that NASA spent $1.5 million dollars developing a pen that could be used in the extreme operating environments of their space missions (e.g., zero-gravity). The myth implies that NASA never considered satisfying their writing instrument objectives by simply using a pencil. It ends by pointing out that's precisely what the Russians did.
The myth is partially true. NASA did require such a writing tool. Prior to the deadly fire aboard Apollo 1, NASA did indeed use pencils on their missions. Afterwards, they required a writing tool that would not burn so readily within their space capsules. Another concern was that in zero G environments, lead pencil tips often broke and were floating eye hazards for the astronauts. But NASA never had to resort to an expensive $1.5 million dollar research and development project to arrive at a solution. You see, the Fischer pen company had already developed a "space" pen a couple of years earlier, without prompting from NASA.
The real story ends with the Fischer pen being exactly the solution NASA required, and it became the standard writing tool aboard their manned space missions. It was such a good solution, that even the Russians decided to use the pens on their own missions!
Okay, so enough of the preamble. What's my point? I just purchased the Fischer "space" pen. I needed a pen that fit the following requirements:
- Small enough to comfortably store in my jean pockets
- The portability from requirement #1 should not make it terribly awkward to actually write with
- Be able to write right-side-up, upside-down, and horizontally (e.g., I am not always going to use it on a flat writing surface)
- Moderate-to-high durability
Guess what pen met all four requirements? Yes, the Fischer space pen. So I'm now the proud owner of a Fischer space pen and it's fantastic. It's nicely weighted; very portable (3 inches in length) with its cap on; and it's very easy to use with the cap placed on its end (5 inches in length).
I'm now anticipating people that ask me about the pen and hear that it's a "space" pen to bring up the myth mentioned above and ask me why I simply didn't choose a pencil. I'll probably be repeating the spiel above quite often. So I figured I'd put it in writing so it would be better committed to memory!