When Farmer is about to launch, Shepard says: "Cleared for launch at zero hour nine a.m.," an homage to the Elton John song "Rocket Man."
The premise is similar to Salvage 1 (1979), a short-lived TV series in which a small company builds a small commercial rocket for outer-space salvage of space hardware. Just like in that series, both rockets use Hydrazine for fuel.
FBI Agent Mathis is played by Mark Polish, who co-wrote the screenplay with his twin brother, writer/director Michael Polish.
Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis also shared screen time in Armageddon (1998), where the same topics of space, astronauts and rocket spaceships are highly concentrated on. In Armageddon Thornton wanted to go into space but couldn't, while Willis did. In this movie, Thornton goes into space while Willis doesn't.
Billy Bob Thornton's two daughters in the movie were played by director Michael Polish's daughter and writer Mark Polish's daughter.