John, thank you so much for your guidance and example file. Based on your suggestion I tried to build the project in a single composition, however something basic is missing. In the attached screen shots you can see that both the ‘New Galaxy Logo3’ layer as well as the orbiting text layers are still visible when they should be obscured by the earth layer. I would sincerely appreciate it if you could please tell me what I am doing wrong. Thanks again, Scott

It looks like only one image can be uploaded at a time. Please let me know if you would like to separately see the screen shot showing text incorrectly in front of the cc sphere.
Mac Pro Quad Core, OS X 10.8.2, CS6