Quote:
Originally Posted by oldE
This reminded me of the old story about NASA working to produce a pen which would function in zero gravity. They did it at substantial cost. Later, when going to space with the Russians, they noted the cosmonauts were using pencils.
Best
Les
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And the reality is pencil tips and debris ended up floating around in the capsule, and got in crew members eyes, and into sensitive electronics. The Russians and NASA both used felt tip markers. The Space pen was developed by Fischer. The Russians have used it since 1969. It is still used on the International Space Station.
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/spinoff/How_NASA_Astronauts_Write_in_Space
The Russians did not have the global communications network we have to talk to astronauts throughout the orbit. They had long periods of no communications to the ground.