“the Soviets, facing the same dilemma, simply used a pencil.”
I heard that too.
Just did a search and Snoops says that the claim isn’t entirely true. NASA asked Fisher to make a prototype of the pen, but it wasn’t developed or used.
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
Very interesting, thank you for the link. Having read that, I conclude that the government made a restrictions (Unable to burn, work in vacuum, no gravity, and temp requirements), and someone apparently out of the goodness of his heart (since he sold 400 at a couple bucks a piece to the government) paid over a million to develop. I was unaware that the U.S. used pencils prior, and the Soviets used the Fisher pen after development. But the devil is in the details, as they say!
Thanks for teaching me something new!