NASA and the Space Pen Myth: Who Knew?

Wow, this is a great story. And one that debunks a myth that I have believed for a long time. We have all heard the story about how NASA needed a way for the astronauts to write things down while in space. And how they spent years and millions of dollars to make an ink pen that could write on paper without gravity. And how the Soviets, so the story goes, simply handed their cosmonauts pencils.

According to and article from 2006 in Scientific America titled;

Fact or Fiction?: NASA Spent Millions to Develop a Pen that Would Write in Space, whereas the Soviet Cosmonauts Used a Pencil

This tale with its message of simplicity and thrift--not to mention a failure of common sense in a bureaucracy--floats around the Internet, hopping from in-box to in-box, and even surfaced during a 2002 episode of the West Wing. But, alas, it is just a myth.