The interesting assertions here are that NASA and the Soviets didn't spend money to develop the Fisher Space Pen or its special ink, but they procured it once it was being manufactured.
And that both NASA and the Soviets had initially used pencils, with their associated hazards. Every time I read that line "Soviets used a pencil" I experience a vivid mental picture of me as an astronaut, pressing the surface so hard that the lead breaks, and little bits drift around in microgravity. Don't get me started on mechanical pencils.
But I did own a Space Pen, and I used it often during high school, and it wrote very well in Earth gravity. Today, I use Pilot G2 gel rollerball, 0.7mm in black or blue inks. Accept no substitutes!
> It was refillable, and very elegant, in a featureless polished stainless-steel body with a knurled grip, and the cap could be secured when open.
Why did I have to read this sensual description, I want it now. (:
> Pilot G2 gel rollerball, 0.7mm in black or blue inks
I looked this up - I see what you mean, I'm going to try them. It looks well-made without being expensive.
> faced with the fact that ball-point pens would not write in zero-gravity, the Fisher Space Pen was devised as the result of millions of dollars of unnecessary spending on NASA's part when the Soviet Union took the simpler and cheaper route of just using pencils
This has been debunked apparently, but I still think there's a general truth to it.