Is an allele for a trait that has no effect on a species fitness affected by natural selection

No, because natural selection is determined by the "fitness" of a species

Where are they though?

The soviet union beat the us to the first successful launch, with the october 4, 1957, orbiting of sputnik 1, and later beat the us to have the first human in earth orbit, yuri gagarin, on april 12, 1961. the "race" peaked with the july 20, 1969, us landing of the first humans on the moon with apollo 11