Gallery: Critical Rocket Launch Will Help Crown the Winner of the New Space Race

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    Joel Kowsky/NASA
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    The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, is raised at launch Pad-0A, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
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    Joel Kowsky/NASA
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    The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard suffers a catastrophic anomaly moments after launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at NASA Wallops Flight Facility on October 28, 2014 on Wallops Island, Virginia.
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    SPACEX
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    SPACEX
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    SpaceX cargo ship explodes soon after launch

    A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on its seventh official Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission to the orbiting International Space Station breaks apart on Sunday, June 28, 2015, after launching from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
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    Roscosmos (Russian Federal Space Agency)
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    Russia launched the Progress 59 robotic cargo ship on April 28, 2015 on a mission to deliver 3 tons of supplies to the International Space Station. The spacecraft suffered a major malfunction after reaching orbit and is falling from space.