An article in Scientific American does some myth-busting.
Fact or Fiction?: NASA Spent Millions to Develop a Pen that
Would Write in Space, whereas the Soviet Cosmonauts
Used a Pencil
"The problem of weightless writing was not solved by either
Soviet central planning or good old American sub-contracting,
but by a private investor and a good idea"
By Ciara Curtin
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?art...EFFCD06138AEC4