Neil, you’re peddling a long-discredited trope as if it were truth. Pencils are not used in spacecraft because of the risk of graphite (which conducts electricity) fragments getting into equipment and causing potentially deadly failures.
The evidence so far in Ukraine does not support your first statement either.
"pencils are not used in spacecraft because of the risk of graphite (which conducts electricity) fragments"
They used wax pencils, or crayons as we call them, until they got the space pen technology without spending on it.
"The evidence so far in Ukraine does not support your first statement either."
The evidence in the Ukraine is that Russia is making ground. Steadily, slowly at the speed of the replacement mechanisms within their production systems.
>...They used wax pencils, or crayons as we call them, until they got the space pen technology without spending on it.
It looks like both the Soviet Union and NASA got their pens from Fisher:
>...the Fisher pen was developed using private capital, not government funding. The development of the thixotropic ink cost Paul Fisher around $1 million (equivalent to $8.6 million in 2021).[4] NASA – and the Soviets[3][5][6] – eventually began purchasing such pens.
The evidence so far in Ukraine does not support your first statement either.