NASA spent millions to develop a pen that would write in space, whereas the Soviet Cosmonauts used a pencil.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen

I went through a couple Space Pens. Loved 'em, but lost 'em. Since then I just started trimming down Bic pens to pocket-size:

http://www.biancolo.com/articles/the-earth-pen

With the cap on the back it's a comfortable-enough size, and so far I have not missed the ability to write upside down or under water. :-)

Yes, and the bits of graphite and rubber eraser float around in the air until you breath them or they get pulled into the electronics and short something out.

Why did you climb the mountain? Because it was there.
Why did we build the space pen? Because we could.

Hey Pev, the article you cited invalidates your comment:

"This tale with its message of simplicity and thrift--not to mention a failure of common sense in a bureaucracy--floats around the Internet, hopping from in-box to in-box, and even surfaced during a 2002 episode of the West Wing. But, alas, it is just a myth."

Originally, NASA astronauts, like the Soviet cosmonauts, used pencils, according to NASA historians. In fact, NASA ordered 34 mechanical pencils from Houston's Tycam Engineering Manufacturing, Inc., in 1965. They paid $4,382.50 or $128.89 per pencil. When these prices became public, there was an outcry and NASA scrambled to find something cheaper for the astronauts to use.

Pencils may not have been the best choice anyway. The tips flaked and broke off, drifting in microgravity where they could potentially harm an astronaut or equipment. And pencils are flammable--a quality NASA wanted to avoid in onboard objects after the Apollo 1 fire."

Unless you have a sophisticated sense of sarcastic irony that is far above my mortal mind.

Citing an article that disproves your point... as Homer would say, DOH!

I love the bullet space pen, but my habit was running $40 a year. My wife found the Zebra F301 compact pen at office depot for under $2.50 each. They don't have the smooth writing and nice heft of the space pen, but are better than a cheapo stick pen. And of course at THAT price point, I never manage to lose them.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/456814/Zebra-F-301-Stainless-Steel-Retractable/?cm_mmc=Mercent-_-Google-_-Pens-_-456814&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=plusbox-beta&mr:trackingCode=B74C0D1B-EC81-DE11-B7F3-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA

I used that same matte black bullet pen for a spell, until it fell apart in my pocket and the spring fell out and got lost. I replaced the spring, but the two pen halves (not the cap) would never stay together after that — they're held together with nothing more than the friction of metal against metal and the fitting on one half seemed to have become too smooth. Farewell Fischer Space Pen.

I wasn't too upset (cost aside) — I always found the ink in the space pen to be too gooey and it used to build up on the ball tip. I also found writing with it to be horrible — the ink consistency was poor and it was one of the worst ballpoints I've used (though I detest them all).

I bought a Space Pen but was frankly disappointed. The design was great but the pen itself was mediocre. Lots of ink blobbing.

I like to buy small, colorful, cheap refillable pens, then replace the frustrating cheap ink with Space Pen refills. I like how the space pen writes, but prefer the more colorful exterior of the cheap pen - harder to lose.

I used to carry one, but they tend to leak ink at the tip. I used to buy them for $5 until a Seinfeld episode featured one and the price tripled almost overnight.
NASA did not spend any money developing the Space Pen.

My first Fisher Bullet Space pen worked really well; alas, it was lost long ago. I've bought newer ones a few times, and as mentioned here, they either disassembled themselves at inconvenient times (leaving me scrambling to grab springs and barrels off the floor), or the ink blobbed up. On a tip from another site, I found the Padrino Mini Ball Point Pen ( http://www.paradisepen.com/paradise/dept.asp?dept_id=21126 -- apologies for the store link, can't find a manufacturer's website), and like it *much* better. It's substantially smaller (about 3-1/8" closed, 5-1/8" open, 1/4" in diameter) but still quite reasonable to write with, much more pocketable, has a nice heft to it (for its size), I like the ink better, and it comes in a bunch of colors.

Oh, and the complete story on the NASA pen/pencil story is nicely summarized here: http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

Marvelous pen, but as others have noted, depressingly easy to lose. I've lost two in the last year and that $40 would have been better spent. I now use the standard Fisher Space pen, matte black. The Stowaway suggestion looks intriguing.

The Fisher Bullet pen is part of my essential equipment, too.

My only complaint about it was that when in "closed" position it would sometimes get jammed so tightly that it was almost impossible to separate. That was only a problem for the first six months... once it was worn in a little, I never had that problem again.

I've never lost mine, but if I did I'd replace it without hesitation.

For durability you cannot beat the old chrome Cross pen. At $20 each, they aren't a good solution if you are prone to losing pens, but if you just want a pen to stay on your desk and work properly for 30 years, that's the way to go. Not too long ago I bought 2 more Cross pens that had an "updated" look and I'm not sure if they are the same quality as they used to be. If I were going to buy more, I'd look around for the original style.

For my money, the best Fisher pen is the Military. 9$

normal pen sized(it's a clicky pen)
but uses the same cartridges.
I often buy one or two from here whenever I put together another order. They last a lot better as there is no cap to lose, and the clip is just fine.
Mine always last just as long as it takes for someone else to figure out how great they are.

http://www.tadgear.com/shop.php?id=91

I thought the "cool tool" aspect was in being able to write upside down, etc. that's why I bought one. But what I bought was a space pen cartridge in what looked like an average ball point pen case. Maybe you can't get those anymore, but if you can, the cheapest solution (length aside) would be to buy
the space pen cartridges and use them in cheap cases. Then you're just paying for the ability to write upside down, etc.

Michael

I've been carrying a matte black bullet space pen for many years. I too have lost a couple (they tend to slide out of front pockets of slacks, but are pretty secure in jeans, which I luckily can wear most of the time), but, for some reason I've held onto my current one for a few years, and besides, they are down to $20 instead of $40.

I love this pen; aside from the awesome way it expands into a fully sized and well weighted pen while also transforming into a shorter shape for carry, it is superior to all other pocket pens I have used because its carry form is smooth and doesn't snag, or poke my hand when I am searching for something in the same pocket.

The Fisher space pen refills fit into regular Cross pens (I used to carry the chrome Cross before I upgraded to the space pen). I've had no leakage problems, and I find that if you buy a fine black cartridge (rather than medium), the ink is not blobby, and no worse than any other ball-point.

I've had the Fisher Bullet Space Pen for a while, but its small size and ability to be lost easily outweighed the usefulness of its compact design. I've since switched to a SureFire EWP-01 with a Space Pen cartridge. I've luckily never had any of the ink issues [buildup, globs, etc...] that other people have described.

I have figured out a good hack to avoid losing the Space Pen.

I use a rubber band to connect the clip of the Space Pen and then loop it around a hole/clip on the paper on which I want to write. The rubber band has enough 'give' so that the clip doesn't pull off.

Previously, I tried clipping the pen to the paper or to the binder clip for my 3x5 cards. The pen would invariably pull off the paper, or the clip would remain and the pen would pull off the clip.

My specific setup these days is to use a pocket sized Moleskine (size of 3x5 cards) with a hole punched in the back cover. I was worried the hole would rip, so I strengthened it with tape, but it doesn't seem to incur much wear. Normally for quick notes, I simply use the "half pen" while the cap & clip remain attached to the notebook. For more serious writing (and the nice thing about the space pen) then I actually unclip the spacepen from the rubber band and have a nice full sized pen.

Michael Black: That is the version I posted a link to at http://www.tadgear.com/shop.php?id=91

It is called the Fisher Military pen.
It is a much better design in my opinion, a proper clip, no cap to lose and 8.95$ instead of 20$. I have used it for years as well. I like it too because you can one hand open it, write and close it again which is hard to do with the bullet pens.
I've had bullets too, I always lose one half or the other though.

No-one mentioned the Inka pen?
http://www.writeanywhere.com/inkapen.html
Tiny, attaches to your keyring, has the same pressurisedink as the FIsher. Comes with integral stylus, can be used in 'mini' mode or skilfully constructed into a full length pen. No worry that it is held together by an o-ring, mine stays out the way till I realise I have forgotten a pen! Not the cheapest, but I am never without it and it is really well made!

Wow! It's true. Americans don't understand irony.

Surprised to see no one on here has mentioned the "Millenium" edition of the Space Pen - which is the one I use. It costs $100, but it is guaranteed to last a lifetime (yours), and if it ever runs out of ink they refill it free. I've had mine for nearly nine years now, and have yet to have a problem. Not sure if I'm just "lucky", but thought it might be worth mentioning.

Another entry in the "I used to use one, but got fed up with the ink blobbing at the tip" column here...

A feeble deflection at best, Pev.

This is an expensive alternative for those prone to losing pens, but my favorite pen to carry around is the aluminum Kaweco AL Sport: http://www.jetpens.com/product_info.php/cPath/727/products_id/3803. I find writing or sketching with small-diameter pens like others mentioned here to be extremely uncomfortable. The AL Sport is chunkier, but still very compact at just over 4" long with the cap on. The clip is removable, which makes it more comfortable to carry in one's pants pocket. And it's a fountain pen, which I prefer, although a ballpoint version is available.

True about replacing the medium with fine to stop any blobbing: too bad the interesting ink colors only come in med., though. I also find that they all come unscrewed, so I put a little low-strength thread locker on them as soon as I get them. I love these pens so much, it's worth it: However, I'm bad for losing them too, so I've resigned myself to when I need a pen that won't explode when left in the glove box, I do as others do & put Space Pen Universal refills in any compact pen.

My Fisher "Space Pen".

For something used almost daily for the past 40 years, it's still in fairly decent condition.

http://img.skitch.com/20090930-ekxe576yafpm426eiixwap3xec.jpg

I haven't tried it, but Valiant makes a small pen with Fisher ink: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ycdr9hh ($35, also comes in Titanium).

I have been using the PicoPen for a while now and I really like it. ($19, http://countycomm.com/picopen.htm) It's a good keychain pen with a magnetic cap that attaches to the keyring, so I always have it on me.

If you want an insanely detailed, 22 page review, you can read "Keychain Pens: IN Search of Excellence" https://www.tecaccessories.com/PDF/KeychainPensReview.pdf

On the chance that this helps anybody, I have three Fisher pens.

A Stowaway is clipped to my wallet at all times. After quite a few years, the only problem I've had is that the cap mysteriously loosens on occasion (heat?), sometimes, and the pen jabs me when I reach for my wallet. It's also just slightly too small for me to write more than a couple of words comfortably.

One Bullet sits on my desk, and the ink does glob up on the ball point regularly, but there's never been a problem after wiping it off. Next time I'm in the market for pens, I'll try the fine ink to see if that makes a difference, Oryctolagus habilis.

A second Bullet lives in a jacket pocket. The size and heft that makes it more comfortable to write with (versus the Stowaway) makes it less desirable in my pants pocket. But it is more comfortable (and looks nicer), so it comes along when it's jacket weather. Unlike the "desk model," I've never had any problems with the ink in this one. Maybe because it's usually vertical?

I also have one of the Military models...somewhere, maybe by my bed. Obviously, not a favorite, though I couldn't tell you why. I think I use it when I'm wrapping gifts, mostly.

There's also the crappy "giftset" pen I found in an empty parking lot, oh, fifteen years ago, maybe. It's been in my briefcase ever since and also has never had a problem, so maybe the Fisher investment was overboard...

I've had Fisher Bullet Pens in my pocket for over 20 years. Note: the S on the word pen. The black ones look cool but disappear much quicker than the chrome ones. The ink globing seems to come and go with individual cartridges. The fine tip ones last forever and do not glob. Eventually, they all go away and I have to wait until the next Christmas or Birthday to receive another. During the dry times I don't have a bullet pen in my pocket I've found a stubby pencil (usually swiped from the library) to cover most of my writing needs. The stubby pencil deserved a cool tools mention all by it's self.

I've had a few space pens. My big complaint? The optional pocket clip doesn't stay on, and it gets the pen lost.

If Fisher would make one with a permanently attached clip, that sumbitch isn't going anywhere without permission. Until then, or I can modify one properly, I'm not getting another.

I've had the same experience with the clip. They now make a version of the Bullet called the X-Mark, which sells online for the same price. The only difference is that the cap is more squared-off (the same shape as the Military click pen) so the clip seems to stay put.