Though prominent throughout the novel and the lead character of the 1983 film based off the novel, the character of Chuck Yeager does not appear in the TV series.
Eric Ladin plays flight director Chris Kraft in this series. In the recent space race show For All Mankind, he plays flight director Gene Kranz
With the death of Glynn Lunney on March 19, 2021, Dee O'Hara is the only historical adult character in the first season of this series who is still living.
Colin O'Donoghue (Gordon Cooper/Gordo Cooper), Patrick Fischler (Bob Gilruth), Shannon Lucio (Louise Shepard) and Tyler Jacob Moore (Bud Jennings) were all previously in the TV show Once Upon a Time (2011), playing the characters of Captain Killian 'Hook' Jones, Isaac Heller, Seer and Prince Hans respectively.