Cole's backstory is partially based on Deke Slayton. Slayton was a pilot in World War II, joined NASA as an astronaut for the Mercury program but was grounded due to atrial fibrillation, and became director of Flight Crew Operations for the Apollo program.
As several scenes were shot on site at the Kennedy Space Center, many of the background NASA engineers were played by actual NASA, SpaceX, and Boeing engineers.
Dariusz Wolski, the film's cinematographer, also acts in the film--as Lance's cinematographer.
A launch did occur at Cape Canaveral during production. The second unit was able to record the launch with their 4K cameras.
In the press conference scene in which the Apollo 11 astronauts are answering questions about the upcoming mission, the dialog is taken from the actual preflight press conference on July 5th, 1969. The full press conference is available on YouTube.