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The complete story is that NASA was spending millions on space pencils, because of floating, very sharp, bits of graphite creating various risks. This was also
by p_l 4y ago
The complete story is that NASA was spending millions on space pencils, because of floating, very sharp, bits of graphite creating various risks.
This was also after the tragedy of Apollo 1.
Meanwhile Soviets used grease pencils, which while safer, were horrible in usability.
Fischer's private development of space pen was quickly picked up by both US and Soviet space programs to solve the problem of writing in space.
- moloch-hai 4y agoI bought a Fisher Space Pen, as a teener. It leaked. Not very badly.
- stonogo 4y agoNASA spent no money developing pencils. They bought a batch of already-existing mechanical pencils, from a regular pencil manufacturer, and they paid too much. The total bill came to something around $140 per pencil, for a total expenditure of just over $4,000. This caused an outcry and eventually evolved into the "millions of dollars" urban legend.
- p_l 4y agoI didn't say they developed them. However, they did a lot of tests on top of that $140 per pencil purchase which helped propel the extrapolation of "millions" (probably in TCO, spread over time)
- stonogo 4y agoZero available sources corroborate that. It was purely the cost of the products that caused the blowback.