On Sun, 04 Dec 2016 08:40:19 -0800, Oren wrote:

On Sun, 04 Dec 2016 09:15:34 -0500, Dan Espen
wrote:

NASA never asked Paul C. Fisher to produce a pen. When the astronauts
began to fly, like the Russians, they used pencils, but the leads
sometimes broke and became a hazard by floating in the [capsule's]
atmosphere where there was no gravity. They could float into an eye or
nose or cause a short in an electrical device. In addition, both the
lead and the wood of the pencil could burn rapidly in the pure oxygen
atmosphere. Paul Fisher realized the astronauts needed a safer and
more dependable writing instrument, so in July 1965 he developed the
pressurized ball pen, with its ink enclosed in a sealed, pressurized
ink cartridge.

Fisher sent the first samples to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Director of the
Houston Space Center. The pens were all metal except for the ink,
which had a flash point above 200°C. The sample Space Pens were
thoroughly tested by NASA. They passed all the tests and have been
used ever since on all manned space flights, American and Russian. All
research and development costs were paid by Paul Fisher. No
development costs have ever been charged to the government. Because of
the fire in Apollo 1, in which three Astronauts died, NASA required a
writing instrument that would not burn in a 100% oxygen atmosphere. It
also had to work in the extreme conditions of outer space:...

FISHER SPACE PEN CO. BOULDER CITY NEVADA USA

http://www.spacepen.com/

"... a pen that uses pressurized ink cartridges and is able to write
in zero gravity, underwater, over wet and greasy paper, at any angle,
and in a very wide range of temperatures."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Pen

The Russians asked what was wrong with a pencil