Space Pens in Space

Space Pens in Space

How a Fisher Space Pen Helped Armstrong and Aldrin Return from the Moon

It's a story that for many weeks was not circulated outside the inner circles of the U.S. Space Program: the Fisher Space Pen helped the original Moon-landing astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, get back to Earth.

A spokesman for NASA recounted the story to Paul C. Fisher, whose company manufactured the pen.

When about to leave the moon, and the astronauts were climbing back into the Lunar Module, the life support backpack on one of the astronauts brushed against the plastic arming switch and broke it. The switch was to have activated the LM's engines for the module's rendezvous with the mother spacecraft.

Aldrin informed Houston's Space Center by radio. A Scientist went to work on the problem immediately by breaking the plastic switch on a duplicate module and then studying the possibility of reaching a tiny metal strip inside the switch.

The strip had to be flipped over to one side to activate the LM engine, but Ground Control knew the astronauts had dispensed with practically all tools in the interest of less weight. But the astronauts still had their Space Pens, so they were advised to retract the point and use the hollow end of the pen to activate the inside switch. Then, Aldrin used his Space Pen to flick the switch's inner workings. He and Armstrong were lifted from the moon to the Apollo Space Ship for return to earth.

The story came out after John McLeish, a NASA public relations official, was quarantined with Armstrong and Aldrin upon the Astronauts' return from their space trip. McLeish told Fisher of the emergency on the moon, related to him by the astronauts. "If it hadn't been for Fisher Space Pens, the astronauts, Armstrong and Aldrin, might still be up there on the Moon."

The early astronauts used pencils for note taking because there were no Space Pens and no other pens would work in space. With the astronauts in mind, Fisher developed what he called his "Space Pen," a pen that would write under weightless conditions and in the vacuum of space.

The Fisher Space Pen with its sealed pressurized ink cartridge was selected by NASA (after rigorous testing) for use on all manned space flights because it is the only type of pen that will write satisfactorily in freezing cold (-50 degrees F) and extreme heat (+400 degrees F) and in the gravity-free vacuum of Space. Since 1967, Fisher Space Pens have been used by the Astronauts on all manned space flights -- even those to the Moon. They are also used by the Russian Cosmonauts on the Soyuz space flights and on the MIR Space Station.

The ink in the Space Pen's replaceable refill is positively fed to its tungsten carbide ball by air pressure at about 40 pounds per square inch. The Fisher Space Pen will write at any angle, even upside down. We believe it to be the smoothest writing, most dependable pen in the world.

The pressurized cartridge required the development of a new special viscoelastic ink (like thick rubber cement). Because the ink is thick and rubber-like, it does not flow except when the shearing action of the rolling ball liquefies its solid gel thixotropic ink, allowing it to write smoothly and dependably on most surfaces, even under water. Paul Fisher invested over $2 million and years of research in developing his patented Space Pens.

Ordinary ball pens rely on gravity to feed the ink and have an opening in the top of the ink cartridge to allow air to replace the ink as it is used. There is no hole in the hermetically sealed and pressurized Space Pens. Evaporation, wasted ink, and back leakage are eliminated. Shelf-life is increased from a normal 2 years to an estimated 100 years.

Your Fisher Space Pen is unconditionally guaranteed to give you good, satisfactory service both here on Earth and in Space.