The role of the women at NASA is the subject of Hidden Figures (2016), based on the book of the same name, recounting the true story of the African-American mathematician Katherine Johnson and her two colleagues, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, who, while working in the segregated West Area Computers division of Langley Research Center, helped NASA catch up in the Space Race.
The speech that President Nixon gives is taken from a speech that was prepared in case Apollo 11 was a failure.
The three astronauts shown in the pictures on the wall were Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White II, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee, all of whom died in a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test of Apollo 1.
Lockman Aerospace is an amalgamation of real-life aerospace companies Lockheed and Grumman. Lockheed and Grumman were both part of the Space Race, with Lockheed making escape and control motors for the Apollo spacecraft, and Grumman constructing the lunar modules.
Rufus could've met his hero Katherine Johnson in the present. At the time of this episode's original air date, Katherine Johnson was still alive at age 98. She would go on to live until 2020.