Thanks for dropping by. I love the whole line of space pens.

I hope you don’t mind but here’s a request. I’d really like to see a one piece Space Pen with an integral carabiner or a sturdy loop built in for putting on a chain or the like. I love my flat black bullet but i always worry about losing the cap or the clip. I’d love something a little bigger that i can just clip to my belt loop or key chain and not have to worry about.

thanks again!

I work in the Sales and Marketing Department here at Fisher Space Pen. One of our code jockeys discovered this site, and I’ve enjoyed reading the comments. Naturally, I especially liked what Mike and F451 had to say; it’s always nice to read unsolicited endorsements - thanks!

Just as a means of explanation. the Contractor Tool Space Pen® isn’t meant to be held in a typical handwriting position; it can be “grabbed” to mark lines and such. Need to hold it in a conventional manner? No problem - the pen barrel portion pulls right out.

A couple of other points: The Space Pen was invented in ‘65, at no cost to the government, and after 18 months of testing by NASA, was issued to astronauts on Apollo 7. We make not only the pressurized cartridge, but we make our own ink and pen ball points, too. So, while there are a couple of other companies out there who make a pressurized pen, well, suffice it to say we’re different. And, Jeff, when you’re ready to take the pressurized plunge, may I suggest you investigate the trekker? It’s our newest Space Pen and fits right on your keychain - doesn’t matter that it hangs upside down, it’s pressurized!

Okay, I’m starting to sound like a commercial, and I was going to try to avoid that. Thanks everybody, for an interesting read!

And again, NASA did not pay for the design of the Fisher Space Pen. And it wasn’t until several years after it was completed that it was even used on a spaceflight.

Nice apocryphal story about design, but misses the point (sic) entirely:-)

Note that, in a microgravity environment, there’s nothing that’s going to cause the ink to flow out of the pen if held “upside down”; capillary action will win every time.

The concerns over graphite, however, are very true.

AFAIK the reason that you actually really do need a pressurized pen in spaceflight is twofold:

The first and most important reason is that graphite is conductive and with lots of tiny bits of it chipping off and floating around inside your spacecraft when you use a simple pencil, you risk all kinds of things like short circuits, particularly when you are talking about reusable vehicles and long-term missions. Conductive dust is even a big problem here on Earth — Google for “Zinc whiskers” if you want some interesting reading.

The second is that while normal pens work fine in space, they don’t last all that long. Sure, capillary action is what moves the ink around, but the same capillary action will happily move the ink the wrong way through the ink tube as easily as it will move it the right way in the absence of any counteracting force. Ever left a cheap ballpoint upside down for a few months? How are you going to find a pen that writes when your replacement is $400 million away?

NASA (and the Russians) do use the Fisher Space Pen now, but they buy them for about $3 each. Prior to that (1967, Apollo missions) they used — you guessed it — a lead pencil.

See numerous debunkings online for more details, if you’re that bored.

As for this — looks exceptionally uncomfortable. And there are pens that write on just-about-anything for a whole lot less money.