The spaceship E-89, is the same miniature prop that was originally created as the saucer-shaped United Planets Cruiser C-57D for the 1956 MGM science fiction classic Forbidden Planet (1956). The external set of the ship and its staircase, and the crew uniforms, are also from the same film. "The Twilight Zone" was able to make extensive use of props and costumes created for "Forbidden Planet" (including Robby The Robot) thanks to the fact that it was regularly filmed at MGM Studios, which kept all these items in storage in its prop department for many years.
This episode takes place in 1997.
Of the three main actors, Jack Klugman (Captain Ross) was the only one who lived to see the actual 1997.
The emblem the flight crew wears on their chest pockets is the same emblem the flight crew in the later episode, On Thursday We Leave for a Home, wears on their caps.
The story proposes that 1997 is the year that spaceships are being sent from an overpopulated Earth to find planets suitable for colonization. A similar notion was later used as one of the main premises of Lost in Space (1965), a series which starred many Twilight Zone alumni.