Cary Fisher is President and co-owner of Fisher Space Pen Co., the iconic American family business based in Boulder City, Nevada, which was founded by his father Paul C.
Fisher Space Pens are made in Boulder City, Nevada, by about 65 workers. The famous Fisher Space Pens have been used by NASA astronauts on every manned space mission for the last 50 years.
NEED FOR A SPACE PENOrdinary ball point pens did not work in space because the ink would not flow by gravity to the ball and the pen leaked if pressure was created in the ink reservoir (here).
How long will a Space Pen refill last? Our Pressurized Space Pen Refills have approximately 12000 feet of ink based on write-out machine testing. Some factors that determine length of write-out for each refill are: Amount of pressure applied to ball point.
It is a hermetically sealed tube containing thixotropic ink, pressurized nitrogen gas, and a tungsten carbide ballpoint tip. During development, Fisher found that while the pressurized cartridge successfully pushed ink out the tip of the pen, it also successfully leaked uncontrollably.
In fact, at a retail value of just over $1.4 million, the Aurora Diamante is the most expensive fountain pen on the planet, and for good reason.
Do astronauts still use them? The pens have been used on every crewed NASA mission since Apollo 7 – dozens are currently aboard the International Space Station.
The Fisher Space Pen is a gas-charged ball point pen that is rugged and works in a wider variety of conditions, such as zero gravity, vacuum and extreme temperatures. Its thixotropic ink and vent-free cartridge release no significant vapor at common temperatures and low pressures.
The Space Pen (also known as the Zero Gravity Pen), marketed by Fisher Space Pen Company, is 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.
So, are there ballpoint pens that write upside down and do the job for you? The answer is yes. In any condition, there are specialized pens that could do the job done. The ballpoint pens with the pressurized cartridge work well on many types of surfaces.
The pencil wasn't an ideal choice for writing in space because its tip could flake and break off, drifting in microgravity with the potential to harm an astronaut or an equipment. Apart from this, pencils are flammable, and NASA wanted to avoid anything flammable aboard a spacecraft.
Notable astronauts
| name | mission | date |
|---|
| Neil Armstrong; Edwin ("Buzz") Aldrin | Apollo 11 | July 16–24, 1969 |
| Fred Haise; James Lovell; Jack Swigert | Apollo 13 | April 11–17, 1970 |
| Georgy Dobrovolsky; Viktor Patsayev; Vladislav Volkov | Soyuz 11/Salyut 1 | June 6–29, 1971 |
| Eugene Cernan; Harrison Schmitt | Apollo 17 | Dec. 7–19, 1972 |
Here's why astronauts can't use regular ballpoint pens: Because ordinary pens rely on gravity. In space, of course, there isn't enough gravity to force the ink out, so the pen's reservoir needs to be pressurized.
László BÃró
John J. Loud
NASA
| Agency overview |
|---|
| Primary spaceports | John F. Kennedy Space Center Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Vandenberg Space Force Base |
| Owner | United States |
| Employees | 17,373 (2020) |
| Annual budget | US$22.629 billion (2020) |
