Poor astronaut
How can he drink anything from a mug in that helmet.
Even if the visor opens he'll need at least a straw.
Anyway: Cheers! (from the nonalcoholics nonymous)
PARIS team raises pint to Yuri Gagarin
It won't have escaped your notice that today marks the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic first manned space flight. Well, we at the Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) bureau couldn't let the moment pass without some form of celebration, and our own heroic Playmonaut was on hand offer a hearty "За здоровье …
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Tuesday 12th April 2011 17:55 GMT Stevie
Bah
You've been rooked, Mr Haines.
Gagarin used pencils. Russians decided to forgo the R&D costs of making a Bic work in microgravity.
What you have there is obviously a Sam the Monkey Space Pen holder, rejiggered by unscrupulous Russian crims to rook the unwary Space Memorabilia Collector.
I know whereof I speak. I have a "genuine" Lunakhod-1 wheel encrusted with "moon dust" that, when I had it valued, turned out to be a Radio Flyer wheel with charcoal barbecue ash glued on (current worth: 23 cents).
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Tuesday 12th April 2011 20:41 GMT Anonymous Coward
*sigh*
NASA never spent a penny on zero-g writing utensils: they too used pencils until it became apparent that highly conductive shards of graphite floating around an environment full of electronic stuff might be A Bad Thing. Once Mr Fisher gave them some of his pressurised pens to try they were hooked, and the Russians ended up using them too, for much the same reason.
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Wednesday 13th April 2011 08:58 GMT Stevie
Err...
The post was intended as humour rather than a definitive history of the Microgravity-Capable Writing Implement race.
The author deeply regrets the confusion, but would like to point out that having seen in person the collection of junk that was walled-up behind the console paneling of Liberty Bell 7 by the builders of said Space Ship, he feels that powdered graphite was the least of the astronauts' problems.
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Tuesday 12th April 2011 21:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
That's an Urban Myth
Up to 1967 both NASA and whatever the Soviet Equivalent was called used pencils. A pen maker took it upon himself to develop the "Space Pen", and once approved by NASA for use they bought initially 400 of them at $2.95 each. From 1968 the Soviets used pen made by the same maker.
Pencils have the unfortunate tendency for leads to break and then float off and then short things seeing as the lead is mostly graphite.
Why let the truth get in the way of a good story though?
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
