Is this statement about NASA true?

Question

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem,
NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300°C.

The Russians used a pencil.

Answer 1

Nope, not true.

Firstly, NASA also used pencils.

Secondly, a ballpoint pen works just as well in zero gravity as on Earth, provided it's kept nib-down beforehand. With no gravity to draw the ink along the tube away from the nib, the cohesion of the liquid will allow the pen to work just as well.

Answer 2

I've read (probably not from a very reliable source) that NASA did design a pen that would write upside down, but I doubt that it cost that much.
It sounds like a statement from someone trying to make NASA look bad and the Russians look good - for example, let's say NASA did develop this pen in the 1970s and the entire NASA budget for the 1970s added up to 12 billion dollars. Then you could make this statement and have it be true, but mislead people into thinking that developing this pen was the only thing anyone at NASA worked on for an entire decade, which is obviously ridiculous.
Such is my critical analysis of this statement.

Answer 3

While I'm sure it wasn't cheap, they did not spend $12 billion to develop a new pen, and it did not take a decade to do it either. They used it for the first time in the early 60's in the Gemini Program. It was amazing in the fact that it will write upside down, and at any angle. But I don't know about on glass and under water. I have one that is autographed by Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon. It's a nice pen, but it sure isn't worth that much. I only paid $35 for it.

They also made numerous advances in almost every modern technology. Today's computers would not be as good as they are without our space program. We wouldn't have microwave ovens, Velcro, or Mylar either if not for the space race. I think that this is just yet another of the BS conspiracy theories that are cooked up to discredit NASA.

Answer 4

Hi,
Comments: This is a marvelous story to illustrate the perils of government waste; pity it's not true. NASA didn't have $12 billion to spend on anything when it first started sending astronauts into space in the early 1960s. The agency's entire budget for the 1960 was $500 million; by 1965, it was up to $5.2 billion, still not enough to throw billions away reinventing the ballpoint pen.

Be that as it may, astronauts in the Apollo program did begin using a specially-designed zero-gravity pen in 1968 called the Fisher AG-7 Space Pen. Nitrogen-pressurized, the pen worked in "freezing cold, desert heat, underwater and upside down," as well as the weightlessness of outer space. It was developed not by NASA but by an enterprising individual, Paul C. Fisher, owner of the Fisher Space Pen Company. By his own account, Fisher spent "thousands of hours and millions of dollars" of his own in research and development; not billions.

The Fisher Space Pen is still used by both American and Russian astronauts on every space flight, and you can buy one yourself direct from the company for a measly 50 bucks.

Answer 5

The pens cost 5 million the building to made the pen cost 10 million the billions left over when to the congress men to approve the funding...

Answer 6

No. It's an old wive's tale created to illustrate some management issues at NASA. Other versions say it was 1 billion, others say 20 billion. It's a load of bull.

But it's rather humourous haha.

Cheers ^_^

Answer 7

No. It's a misconception. Paul Fisher developed the pen independently and asked NASA to try it. He didn't receive any government funding.

Answer 8

I have heard this story a number of times. However every time the story says the cost was 12 million, not billion. You reported that part wrongly.

Answer 9

certainly i don't believe city Dictionary. even with the reality that my brother and pop are Aeronautical Engineers, my Uncle is a Chemical Engineer and eight out of my 11 cousins are MD's and a couple of of them are dentists. i'm analyzing to be a Gen. well being practitioner myself. sure, my physician is Indian

Answer 10

No - pencils break. Bits of graphite and graphite dust are bad news with electronic equipment in zero g.