For several decades, the story of nearby American engineers and their ingenuous Soviet colleagues has been popular. We checked if there was such an episode in the space race.

The legend usually has approximately the following view: “During the development of the NASA space program, I faced a problem: ordinary ballpoint pens do not write in zero gravity. And then the agency attracted the best scientists of the country and spent several million dollars of taxpayers in order to develop a special "The space pen. "This miracle of technology could write in zero and vacuum, in the heat and in the cold, and in general it was the best pen of times and peoples. And the Soviet leadership, meanwhile, supplied its astronauts with simple and cheap pencils."

As it turns out, this information has long been popular and Westwhere it is mentioned, for example, in the episode of 2002 of the series "Western wing". As for Russia, one of the options for history has long been included in the top of the quotes for Bash.org, another fell into the memoirs of Mikhail Khazin "Jewish happiness". The famous satirist Mikhail Zadornov, who accompanied her with his crown, “I always give an example during my speeches, how much the consideration of our people” was not able to bypass this topic.

The first question that the reader may arise: why is the usual ballpoint pen? The fact is that her work directly depends on gravity: ink should drain from the rod to the ball, and from it on paper. However, in conditions of zero gravity, no force pushes the ink to the ball - they just dangle freely in the rod. For the same reason on Earth, it is usually quite problematic to write an inverted or horizontally ballpoint pen. Therefore, it would be logical to use a simple pencil as the simplest solution. So why didn't the Americans think of him? Or did you think of it?

In fact, at the beginning of the space era, the American conquerors of space used exclusively pencils. Within the framework of the first American space program Mercury (1961–1963) Pencils were wax, but for the second program Gemini (1965–1966) NASA ordered 34 mechanical pencils from the Houstonian company Tycam, while paying $ 4382.5, or $ 128.89 for each copy. When these figures became public, erupted scandal, and the organization decided to abandon such expenses in the future. Moreover, the pencils, although they had an ultra -strength case, but inside they had the most ordinary mechanism with graphite, bought In a local office store, $ 1.75 apiece. Pulled oils into the fire information The fact that, together with expensive pencils, the astronauts took on board four Japanese (that is, yesterday - enemy) Pentel pencil with a total value of 49 cents.

They did not disdain with pencils in the USSR. For example, Alexei Leonov, who in the future has become real artist, made his first “space” drawing on March 18, 1965, during the flight on the ship “Voskhod-2”. Astronaut Used Pencils "Tactics", specially adapted for use in space. Each pencil was attached by the lace to the table, on which he painted the astronaut.

Shinkers laces, however, both of those and other organizers of flights had serious reasons to abandon the use of pencils. Graphite specimens were written in thin lines, but posed a danger when they broke. Swimming through the cabin of a spaceship, a piece of graphite could get a person into the eye or even in a mechanism or electronics, causing a closure or other problems. Wax pencils wrote inaccurately and vaguely, like crayons. In addition, when using them, a piece of paper was exfoliated, potentially generating problems similar to graphite troubles. To top it off, both graphite and paper are perfectly ignited in an oxygen -saturated environment, and what is a fire on board, they learned after NASA after tragedy with Apollo-1.

And here the unsuccessful presidential candidateBut, as it turned out, a quite successful inventor Paul Fisher. In 1965, he patented a pen, which could write in the heat and in the cold, a ball up and up and even under water.

Unlike most ballpoint pens, the work of the “space pen” (Space Pen) was not based on gravity. Instead, the cartridge was under the pressure of nitrogen equal to 35 pounds per square inch. Nitrogen pushed ink to a ball of tungsten carbide. The ink was also unusual: with a tixotropic (very viscous at rest) consistency, which protected from evaporation. They began to behave like a liquid, only when the ball rotated, and the rest of the time they remained motionless.

To advance his invention, Fisher even achieved his mention on Hearing In Congress in 1966, after which he sent several advertising avenues to NASA. The agency was afraid to step on old rake for a long time, but finally in 1967 We decided Buy one of the models of the Fisher anti-gravity handle-AG-7-at a price of $ 4 apiece. As the Associated Press agency testifies from February 1968, as a result, NASA purchased 400 handles with a 40 percent discount-$ 2.39 for each. Moreover, a year later, the USSR followed the example of the Americans, which for its space program "Soyuz" Bought 100 handles and 1000 cartridges with ink at a similar price. Since then, the two countries have used Fisher pens in space flights on an ongoing basis.

An important fact: that's it Documents They say that NASA did not invest in the development of the “space pen” of NASA and was not connected with the Fisher with the corresponding contract. The inventor himself, according to unverified data, really spent significant funds in the initial period, almost a million dollars, but his business has since paid off many times. And today, Fisher anti -gravity hands of various models can Buy For a price of about $ 25-50.

Thus, all the key facts of the famous story turned out to be false. In fact, both superpowers supplied their astronauts with ordinary pencils for a long time, the “space pen” cost NASA $ 2.39 per copy, and the Soviet Union eventually used the invention of the Americans. The last fact may sound more annoyed if we find out that in the 1960s Soviet engineer Mikhail Kletsov Developed A similar fountain pen based on nitrogen and dense ink, but the innovation was then ignored by responsible officials. And judging by all data, the bike was invented by the Americans themselves back in the 1960s.