The team that they were "pampering" for the spaceship mission. Just found it odd that they wouldn't let them eat normal food (just those pills), but would allow them to smoke. Several of them were seen doing so during the telly scene.
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I'd argue that the film actually holds up pretty well by modern standards, with the exception of a few details, which I think largely have to do with the time period in which the movie was made.
I mean, for one thing the space program's militaristic structure is a bit odd by modern standards but in 1955 it was the army doing most if not all the early rocketry experiments and astronauts were usually military men. How could George Pal have anticipated the formation of NASA or the problem that would lead to such a movement being necessary (long story short, the army and the air force were wasting a lot of time and money competing against each other and refusing to share, and after a while the government couldn't take it anymore).
Then of course there's the lack of female astronauts (although I do give the film credit for having a sympathetic Japanese character given this was only ten years after World War II ended). This was also just because of how gender was viewed at the time. As far as I can tell there was no intention of being sexist, it was just that at the time the world was seen one way and the thought of women being astronauts just never crossed the minds of George Pal or Byron Haskin.
In fact, technically speaking, at the time it would have been true that there were no female astronauts (at least none that actually got into space), largely because the early experiments were conducted by the military. The first woman in space happened about ten years after Conquest of Space was released, but she was Russian. The first American women didn't get into space until the 1980's.
The smoking in space I suspect is another case of this situation. In 1955 the health issues related to smoking were not widespread knowledge (assuming of course they were known at all). In those days it was perfectly normal. Nobody had any way of knowing it could give you cancer, so how could George Pal? The lack of any understanding of what cigarettes do compared to limited technical knowledge (given the space program was just getting started), I suspect the possibility that smoking in space could be a safety hazard just never occurred to the filmmakers.
David Lynch walks into a bar... he won't give me the punchline.
At the time this film was released, you could easily find scenes of doctors smoking at their patients' bedsides (and maybe offering the patient a light). In the 50s and much of the 60s, smoking was seen no differently than drinking coffee, and it was "allowed" virtually anywhere and everywhere except where it might start a fire or cause an explosion. Concepts like "second hand smoke" were years away.
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