Black Titanium Nitride Infinium Space Pen Medium Point Blue Pen
 
Model #: INFB-1

FISHER SPACE PEN...SINCE 1953:

The Fisher Space Pen (also known as the Zero Gravity Pen), marketed by Fisher Space Pen Co., is the original pen that uses pressurized ink cartridges and will write in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, over wet and greasy paper, at any angle, and in extreme temperature ranges.

These pens can write at altitudes up to 12,500 feet (3810 m). The ink is forced out by compressed air at a pressure of nearly 35

pounds per square inch (240 kPa). Operating temperatures range from -30 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit (-35 to 120 degrees Celsius). These pens have an estimated shelf life of 100 years.

There exists a common urban legend claiming that because a standard ballpoint pen would not work in zero gravity, NASA spent $11 million developing the zero-g capable Space Pen, with the humorous note that the Russian space agency opted to simply use pencils.  In fact, NASA programs have used pencils but because of the danger that a broken-off pencil tip poses in zero gravity and the high flammability of both the graphite and wood present in pencils a better solution was needed.

NASA never approached Paul Fisher to develop a pen, nor did Fisher receive any government funding for the pen's development. Fisher invented it independently, and then asked NASA to try it. After the introduction of the AG7 Space Pen, both the American and Soviet (later Russian) space agencies adopted it.

Another rumor has it that the Apollo 11 astronauts accidentally snapped off a switch which was necessary to permit them to fire the engine to return to the Earth; and that a Fisher Space Pen was used to press this button.