5. Expensive Aero-Pens - Leo Incorrectly Asserts That The US "Spent Millions Of Dollars" On A Pen That Astronauts Could Use In Space While The Russians Just Took A Pencil
In "We Killed Yamamoto" (Season 3, Episode 21), Toby walks into Leo's office and the Chief-of-Staff says: "We spent millions of dollars developing a pen for the astronauts that would work in zero gravity. Know what the Russians did?" Toby replies: "Used a pencil?" To which Leo confirms: "They used a pencil." However, this was simply not the case. Although "The Fisher Space Pen" (or "Zero Gravity Pen") was developed at a huge cost, it was funded privately and not by the US government. Yes, NASA did themselves begin to develop a space pen, but once they realised the cost would be astronomical they instead decided to just take a pencil - as Soviet cosmonauts did too. Interestingly, once the Fisher Space Pen Company - owned by manufacturer Paul C Fisher - had created the Zero Gravity Pen, both the US and Soviet governments used it within their space programmes.