In real life, the United States Project Apollo space program landed on the moon July 20, 1969, two years and three months after this episode aired in April 1967.
The early scenes of the moon rocket being wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building are of an actual Saturn V, the rocket that was used for the Apollo lunar missions. The rocket in the later scenes, however (seen on the launch pad from nighttime to the launch), are of a Saturn 1B, a smaller lift vehicle only capable of achieving low Earth orbit.
First episode to feature Kent Smith in the cast. Smith would return in a different role - that of Edgar Scoville - as a regular in the second season.
The Saturn V show in some scenes, including the Moonshot thumbnail is a nonflyable rocket that was never meant to fly.
Peter Graves plays a character who was an astronaut candidate sidelined by a health issue and who was put in charge of astronaut training and rotation. This mirrors the real life situation of Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton.