The Russian Space Pen

When NASA first started sending astronauts into space, they realized that the ball-point pen would not work at zero gravity.

A million dollar investment and two years of tests resulted in a pen that could write in space, upside down, on almost any surface and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 celsius.

When confronted with the same problem, the Russians used a pencil.

Hey, at least NASA astronauts didn’t have to go through the ordeal of pen-sharpening regularly.