At the end Deke Slayton is presented with a gold astronaut pin that was to have been presented to him by the crew after the flight because they knew Deke would never fly in space. Deke did eventually fly in space in 1975 as part of the US crew for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
The three astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, were all given state funerals to honor their sacrifices in the pursuit of the mission to land an American on the surface of the moon.
Joe Shea is played by Kevin Pollak, who bears a striking resemblance to Shea.
Harrison Storms was fired from North American after the Apollo One fire. He was never seen or heard from again in the Engineering/Aeronautical field.