This one is comical but a TRUE STORY. NASA spent millions of dollars developing a ballpoint pen that would work in zero gravity and at low atmospheric pressure as well as at "sea-level" air pressure. Their final product went through all the quality assessments and was then successfully released for use by the astronauts.
About the same time the Russians developed a solution for much less money. They went to the stationary cupboard and put a few HB pencils in their spacecraft. Same function; less cost.
