The interior of the spacecraft in the film was built by the Space Engineering Department of the Kansas Universe and Space Center. The two command cabins and the lunar module used in the shooting are all replicas, and many parts can be moved so that the camera can view and shoot in a cramped space. In order to use the Boeing KC-135 weightless aircraft to shoot the scene inside the cabin, the space engineering department adjusted the command module and the lunar module. The pressure suit the actor wears in the film is not only the same as the real thing, but also the airtightness is not inferior, which is exactly the same as the real space suit.
Director Ron Howard refused to use real-life shooting, but chose to set up the control center set in the Universal Studios. Art director Michael Columbless and set designer Mary Des Boswell fully referred to the detailed instructions of the Houston Control Center. The NASA employee who served as the film consultant believed that the set was equipped with a giant rear-projection screen and a complex computer system. Quite accurate.
Before the filming started, Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon participated in the space training camp in Hansville. Astronaut Jim Lovell and Apollo 15 commander David Scott guided several actors to receive professional training in the simulated command module and the lunar module. After mastering the operational essentials of the spacecraft, the three immediately went to the Johnson Space Center to try to adapt to the state of weightlessness in the Boeing KC-135 weightless aircraft. The crew finally conducted a total of 612 parabolic flights, with a cumulative weightlessness time of 234 minutes. All the actors were so serious in their training that the Apollo 15 astronauts who trained them were admired.
