Let's not forget why the US won the Space Race

Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager (born February 13, 1923) is a former Brigadier General in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. Originally retiring as a Brigadier General, Yeager was promoted to Major General on the Air Force’s retired list 20 years later for his military achievements.

In 1947, at the age of 24, Yeager flew a rocket-powered Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, reaching Mach 1.07, at an altitude of 45,000 feet. Two nights before the scheduled date for the flight, he broke two ribs while riding a horse. He was so afraid of being removed from the mission that he went to a veterinarian in a nearby town for treatment and told only his wife, and his friend and fellow project pilot Jack Ridley, about the accident.