TriviaEdit

• Although at the beginning Homer is shown to have never been awarded Employee of the Month, losing out to an inanimate carbon rod, he was actually made Employee of the Month in episode 305, Homer Defined, after averting the core meltdown.
• In the Simpsons tapped out level 23 The hail ants sign can be used as a decoration.
• Homer, somehow, had his photo taken in space, as referred to in"Homer's Enemy" and "Homerazzi."
  • Interestingly, all three of these episodes have Homer's name in the title.

Cultural ReferencesEdit

• The episode title is a reference to the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• The episode features numerous film parodies, mostly referencing The Right Stuff and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• The scene where Homer and Barney are dueling in an arena is a reference to "The Gamesters of Triskelion," an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.
• When Homer screams "Damn them all the hell!" after figuring out what the ending of Planet of the Apes meant parodies what the main protagonist's reaction was in finding the Statue of Liberty.
• The music that plays while Homer is eating the potato chips is The Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss II.
• During the Itchy and Scratchy episode, there is a reference to the Alien chest bursting scene.
• When the Simpson family comes to NASA, it refers to the movie Out of Towners.

GoofsEdit

• NASA sees Homer at clip from outside of a space shuttle, but there is no video camera outside.