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A Cheap Ballpoint Pen Is All What You Need To Write In Space

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Way to go NASA!

Roland Piquepaille writes "Today, I had a big surprise. Like many people, I always believed that it was impossible to write in space with ordinary pens because ink would not flow. So imagine my astonishment when I read "Pedro Duque's diary from space" this morning. Pedro Duque is an astronaut since 1992. Now, he's on board of the International Space Station (ISS) since October 18, 2003. And he's writing — from space — with a cheap ballpoint pen, like Russians apparently always did: "So I also took one of our ballpoint pens, courtesy of the European Space Agency (just in case Russian ballpoint pens are special), and here I am, it doesn't stop working and it doesn't 'spit' or anything." Thank you Pedro! You just destroyed one of the only certainties I had in life. You'll find more details on my blog, including a photograph of Pedro Duque working on ISS." So, all those pens sold as being special "space pens" (even the ones that actual astronauts used) have all been a huge hoax?

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Pedro Duque working in the ISS

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