The black & white movie footage of two white mice in zero gravity that Dr. Engstrom watches is from the 1953 film "Animals in Rocket Flight" by the United States Air Force; a short film which documents the May 21, 1952 launch and recovery of the Aerobee-26 from the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. This was the third Aerobee test using live animals, and the first in which the test animals (two mice and two Capuchin monkeys) were all recovered safely. The Aerobee-26 reached an altitude of 37 miles (significantly less than the 250 miles attained by the rocket in this story.)