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NASA spent no money developing pencils. They bought a batch of already-existing mechanical pencils, from a regular pencil manufacturer, and they paid too much.
by stonogo 4y ago
NASA 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.