Newsgroups: sci.space.history
From: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
Subject: Re: Space Pen
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 02:03:42 GMT

In article <890607704.11899.0.nnrp-11.9e98ecc4@news.demon.co.uk>,
1 <1@1.com> wrote:
>you know the story, they spent x million developing a pen, while the
>Russians decided it would be cheaper to use a pencil.

Bear in mind that pencils shed bits of graphite, and some of NASA's early
spacecraft designs tended to make, shall we say, unwise assumptions about
the internal environment being relatively clean.  There were reasons for
preferring a pen.
--
Being the last man on the Moon                  |     Henry Spencer
is a very dubious honor. -- Gene Cernan         | henry@zoo.toronto.edu