Over at Cosmic Log (sorry, permalink not working–it’s the May 3, 4 AM EST entry), one of Alan Boyle’s readers comments (with regard to going back to an Apollo capsule for space access, of which I’ll have more to say later this week):

It is this sort of can-do idea that still makes NASA great. We should follow the Russian lead. It reminds me of the story of the U.S. spending over a million dollars to make a pen that worked in space. As I am sure you know, the Russians used a pencil.?

The reader implies that the story is true. It’s an urban legend.

I stand second to none in my frustration with NASA, and in criticizing much that the agency does, but our criticism, and analysis, should be based on fact, rather than myth, or our recommendations will not be taken seriously.

[Update on Monday evening]

Alan has pointed out a working permalink to the post in question. I assume that his permalink problems are MSNBC related, and not any fault of his. Unfortunately, many of the major media sites (including that of the long-suffering folks at Fox News, who have to regularly deal with inadvertent errors in my column introduced by the chosen software, rather than any errors on their or my part) are, shall we say, behind the times? It’s an inevitable consequence of working for a large bureaucracy, just as NASA’s problems are not the making of any (or at least, not many) of the good people working there.