Serenity Easter Egg - Research and Rescue Designation

In the movie Serenity, the movie version of the TV Series Firefly. About 1 hour and 15 minutes into the film. As the heros enter a crashed rescue ship on the planet Miranda the designation of this ship is "C57D", written in large letters on the inside and outside of the ship. It seems to me that this is an obvious referance to the 1950's classic movie, Forbidden Planet. In that movie Leslie Nielson commanded the "United Space Cruiser C57D" on a resue mission to the planet Altair IV. This just seems too much to be a coincidence.