Pens In Space!!!

This week its time to delve back into my bag of items I got at the Apollo 7 Celebration a few years back. So, let's take a look at a rather special pen...

This is the Fisher Space Pen. The Fisher pen was adopted by NASA because it could write in micro gravity due to its pressurized cartridge. This particular space pen was released in honor of Apollo 11. It features beautiful etching that is more or less impossible to photograph. It says, "Apollo 11, Neil A. Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins." It features pictures of Armstrong planting the American flag on the moon surface, The service module, and a full Saturn V stack. It also says, "This AG7 Model Pen Was Used As A Tool To Save The Apollo 11 Man's first landing on the moon July 20th, 1969." And herein the plot thickens...

The instance the text refers to is undoubtedly the story about how after the Eagle module had landed on the moon and it was time to leave, Buzz Aldrin noticed that the relay to fire the main engines had been broken off. In order to fire the engine and return to earth, Aldrin shoved a pen into the relay. The trick worked and all was saved. The Fisher pen company began circulating the story about how the Space Pen had saved the mission, and they made tons of money. The only person that was silent about the story was Buzz.

Years went by and Aldrin released his memoirs. In them, we find out why he was strangely silent about the pen story. It wasn't exactly true. He did, in fact, use a pen trigger the relay, but it wasn't a Fisher Space Pen. It was a plastic felt tip marker. He was afraid the metal casing on the space pen would short out the relay.

So why did he not say anything for all of those years? I personally think because he is a very nice guy. (I've met him and talked with him and he certainly seems to be!) He saw that Fisher had a lot to gain from the story, and he had nothing to gain from clearing it up, so he just let it go. Also, it could be argued that by providing an excellent writing instrument for the Apollo program, Fisher actually did save it....just not in as dramatic a way.

So there you have it. Some legends are 100% true and some, not so much....But either way, its a beautiful pen and a piece of space history!

Until next time fly 'em fast and high!