America put a man in space, put a man in orbit, put a man on the moon, created the world's first reusable spacecraft, sent unmanned probes to other planets and led the world in making important scientific discoveries outside the Earth's atmosphere.

FORBES: NASA Needs A Mission

The Russians responded by sending off Yuri Gagarin in 1961 to be the first man in orbit.

ECONOMIST: The race to the moon

It is true that the Soviets won some of the early heats of the space race, including being the first to put a man into orbit.

FORBES: The History Challenged Tea Party Goes 'Jaywalking'

Yet this is a race, and whoever is the first to fulfill various objectives, such as being the first to send a man into orbit or a probe to Mars, garners more prestige.

FORBES: The Return of "Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space" Game

So most dust now in orbit around earth can be assumed to be man-made.

ECONOMIST: Orbital debris

The award would be presented to each crewmember from all 12 three-man Apollo missions, including the Apollo 7 and 9 Earth-orbit flights as well as the Apollo 1 crew, which perished in a launch pad fire in 1967.

CNN: House approves moon rock giveaway to Apollo survivors

The early Soviet Space triumphs were managed and steered by Sergei Korolev, the man who built the R7 rocket that put Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin into orbit.

BBC: What if the Soviet Union had beaten the US to the Moon?

Unidentified Man: Is Neptune a planet, because everybody knows that Neptune's orbit is crossed by Pluto's.

NPR: Pluto, the Un-Planet?