Trivia

As the "New Nine" are introduced they each check into the Rice Hotel as "Max Peck". This was the code name each new astronaut was instructed to use, more to avoid press attention than to confuse the Soviets. Each man is checked in by the hotel Manager except Jim Lovell who at first gives his code name to a young woman. The woman is doubtful that Jim is Max because her boss is the real Max Peck. This event really happened in the way it is depicted.

In the first episode, astronaut Pete Conrad is played by two different actors. Peter Scolari plays the role for most of the episode, but in the final "all hands meeting" scene, Paul McCrane takes over the role. (McCrane plays Conrad again in Episode 7.)

In "Can We Do This?" James Webb says that NASA will put the first American in space on May 2, 1961, referring to Alan Shepard's upcoming Freedom 7 flight. When the liftoff of Freedom 7 is shown, the date is listed as May 5, 1961. This may appear to be a mistake, but it is not. Freedom 7 was originally scheduled to launch on May 2, but this was postponed until May 5 because of thunderstorms.

Joe Shea, who was in charge of supervising the design, development and manufacturer relations for the Apollo program, was a brilliant engineer and a bit of an autocrat, and was not popular among many at NASA. The individual facilities at NASA had developed their own cultures and did not always mesh well together, and Shea's approach did not mesh well with the consensus-based culture that had developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center. There were also major conflicts between Shea and the manufacturer, North American. Compounding the issue was the pressure on Shea of the mandate to put a man on the moon no later than 1969. There was also the fact that Shea's status at NASA was close to rivaling both von Braun and Chris Kraft. In fact, Shea had been scheduled for a cover story in Time magazine for the month in which Apollo I was scheduled to fly.

After the fatal fire, Shea pulled eighty hour weeks, which greatly intensified his already high level of stress. Having sleep issues, he resorted to barbiturates and alcohol, eventually experiencing a breakdown. According to Chris Kraft, Shea was making a report on the investigation one day when he began to ramble and then became incoherent. As for the psychiatrists' reports, Shea was reportedly so intelligent that he was able to fool them all. NASA administrator James Webb felt that Shea might crack during the questioning by Mondale's congressional inquiry and he decided to have Shea sidelined. After two months in the "non-job" in Washington Shea resigned and joined the Polaroid Corporation as a vice president.

The shot of Buzz Aldrin rubbing his fingers and creating a glow during his space walk is factual. He describes this event in his autobiography "Return to Earth".