Thursday, August 13, 2026
The astronaut pen that never existed—and other myths
Trivia of the Day
What writing instrument did NASA astronauts actually use during the early space missions before the development of the space pen?
- Regular ballpoint pens
- Pencils
- Grease pencils
- Felt-tip markers
Answer: Pencils — The famous story about NASA spending millions to develop a space pen while cosmonauts simply used pencils is completely false—both space programs used pencils at first, and both switched to space pens for safety reasons.
The legend goes like this: NASA spent millions developing a high-tech pen that could write in zero gravity, while the clever Soviets just used pencils. It's a perfect Cold War parable about American excess versus Russian pragmatism—except it's entirely fiction.
Both NASA and Soviet cosmonauts used pencils during early missions. But pencils presented real dangers in spacecraft. Graphite tips break off, creating conductive fragments that could float into electronics and cause short circuits. Wooden pencils are flammable in pure oxygen environments. Even the smallest debris becomes a hazard when it floats freely in zero gravity.
Paul Fisher, an independent inventor, developed the pressurized AG-7 "Space Pen" using his own money—about $1 million in the 1960s. The pen used pressurized nitrogen to push ink toward the tungsten carbide ball, allowing it to write upside down, underwater, in extreme temperatures, and in zero gravity. NASA tested it thoroughly and bought 400 pens in 1965 for $2.95 each—hardly a government boondoggle.
The Soviets liked the design too. By 1969, they were also purchasing Fisher Space Pens for their cosmonauts. The myth persists because it's too perfect a story: bureaucratic waste versus common sense. But the truth is more interesting—a problem both superpowers shared, solved by private innovation, adopted by both sides. Sometimes the best Cold War stories are the ones that never happened.
Word of the Day
subfusc adjective / noun · sub-FUSK
Dull, gloomy, or somber in color or tone; at Oxford University, the formal academic dress code of dark suit and white shirt. From Latin subfuscus, "somewhat dark" (sub- "somewhat" + fuscus "dark brown"), the word entered English in the 18th century to describe anything dusky or dingy, though it gained its sartorial specificity in British academic circles.
“The subfusc clouds matched his mood perfectly as he trudged through another gray February morning. Later that week, he donned subfusc for his Oxford viva, the white bow tie his only concession to brightness.”
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Joke of the Day
Why did the astronaut refuse to believe the space pen story?
Because the myth had too many plot holes—unlike the pen, which had none.
This Day in History
1521 — Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés completed his conquest of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan after a 93-day siege, ending the Aztec Empire. The siege devastated the city of 200,000, with smallpox and starvation killing tens of thousands before the final assault. On the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the Spanish built Mexico City, which remains the capital of Mexico today—a living palimpsest where Aztec temples lie beneath colonial churches and modern skyscrapers.
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