Those Silly Americans!

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that those ballpoint pens would not work in 0 gravity.  To combat this problem, NASA Scientists spent a decade and $12 Billion developing a pen that writes in 0 gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including Glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 degrees Celsius.


The Russians used a pencil.