The Russians Used a Pencil

[maelin]

So that old story about the space pen is lame and wrong. Unsurprising, really.

But when a friend of mine went to Texas for a holiday and bought me my own genuine Fisher space pen I did a bit of research and learned of a wonderful little story (a version of it is here) about how Buzz Aldrin used his to solve the problem of the broken ascent rocket arming switch. However, I was reading another thread on this forum and saw an (off-topic) post that suggested it wasn't the Fisher space pen after all, it was instead a Flair felt-tip pen. I Googled for this but only found one other mention of this alternative theory on the whole internet, buried in the archives on the Snopes forum. Of course, the original story is not very prolific on the net either.

I'd really like to know what the truth of the matter is here. Was it the Fisher space pen, or the Flair felt-tip? And, to those people who answer to help shed light on the issue, how do you know?

In other news, hooray, my first post

[Obviousman]

I believe it was the felt-tip.

Wait for Jay to log on - he knows the details.

[iamspartacus]

The official NASA story can be found here.

[lenbrazil]

Funny I was about to start a new thread to find out if the pen and pencil story was true.

Like many (most / all ?) urban myths there is a little bit of truth to it and it is satisfying as an anecdote

[lenbrazil]

If the account from Fisher can be believed they didn't develop the pen specificly for the space program. It doesn't sound like they spent a million dollars either.

So perhaps the debunking of urban myths can contain other myths.

www.spacepen.com/usa/index2.htm

They say " The #AG7 - Original Astronaut pen saved the (Apollo 11) module"

[mid]

maelin said:

So that old story about the space pen is lame and wrong. Unsurprising, really.

But when a friend of mine went to Texas for a holiday and bought me my own genuine Fisher space pen I did a bit of research and learned of a wonderful little story (a version of it is here) about how Buzz Aldrin used his to solve the problem of the broken ascent rocket arming switch. However, I was reading another thread on this forum and saw an (off-topic) post that suggested it wasn't the Fisher space pen after all, it was instead a Flair felt-tip pen. I Googled for this but only found one other mention of this alternative theory on the whole internet, buried in the archives on the Snopes forum. Of course, the original story is not very prolific on the net either.

I'd really like to know what the truth of the matter is here. Was it the Fisher space pen, or the Flair felt-tip? And, to those people who answer to help shed light on the issue, how do you know?

In other news, hooray, my first post

Buzz says he used his "felt tip" pen. That pen was actually a composite tipped sort of device, one that he had in addition to his Fisher pen. He liked it better than the Fisher because it provided a bolder stroke.

The ascent engine arm circuit breaker had it's knob broken off. It wasn't a major problem, and Buzz used the end of his "felt tip", which neatly fit into the opening where the knob had broken off, to press the breaker into the closed position at the appropriate time, a couple hours prior to ascent from the surface.

The Fisher would've served the purpose as well, but alas, Buzz was using the felt tip, because that was his preference.

The breaking of the circuit breaker was reported by Aldrin to Houston after the EVA, and he discussed fixing the switch with his felt tip in his own book, Men From Earth, as well as in discussions with Eric Jones durrting the compilation of the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal.


And, you're correct in that the Fisher story was lame....NASA didn't spend anything on the pen. The idea was Fisher's and they spent the money developing the AG-7. Their investment paid off for them, according to their own literature, because they've sold alot of these very functional things to many people. It's nice having a pen that doesn't dry up when you're writing without the tip pointed down...

Fisher's are still used in space. The CH-4, I believe, a slightly modified design, is the current Shuttle pen.

[Bing Gordon]

A couple of years ago I was lucky to be present at a public interview with Buzz Aldrin and he brought up the story of the broken circuit breaker. He mentioned that there had been a build up of condensation inside the LM and there was no chance that he even considered inserting a metal object into a damaged circiut breaker as it would be dangerous to do so (either he could have recieved an electrical shock or could have shorted out the systems of the LM leaving them stranded). So he used the felt tip pen instead.
He also mentioned that this company (he never mentioned Fisher for whatever reason) had been using false information to advertise the product and sued, or threatened to sue them.
I was actually a bit disappointed as I owned one as a child and loved the whole story........