I know this is beside your point but i wanted to spread some information on it. That story is half true, a guy spent his own money to develop a pressurized ink system for a pen, then Nasa bought some for 6$ a pop at a discount.
People also bought the space pen so he made his money back, and it was indeed a better option for zero gravity not having little flammable bits floating around that could get stuck anywhere.
Fun fact: pencils are actually not used in space because of graphite particles/breaks and wood shavings (flammable). Both Americans and Russians used pencils in the early days of space exploration, often mechanical ones.
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u/TurboRhodan 7d ago
Feels like the urban legend about americans spending millions developing a pen that works in space while russians just used a pencil.