China has sent its first woman into space on a mission to dock with an orbiting station, the latest step in an ambitious programme to go to the moon and on to Mars.

Photo: China's first female astronaut Liu Yang, waves during a sending off ceremony before she departs for the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rocket launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, China, Saturday, June 16, 2012. China will send its first woman and two other astronauts into space Saturday to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming only the third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Anne Owen and Abigail Owen-Pontez strap into “Elee”, a car made of cutlery from American Airlines during the Everyones Art Car Parade May 14, 2005 in Houston, Texas. The silverware was purchased by Houston artist Mark Bradford when the airline had to convert to plasticware after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The parade includes around 280 cars and is part of Art Car Weekend along with a street festival, parade, carnival, ball and other events. (Photo by Dave Einsel/Getty Images)

From footballs to live fish, delivery mopeds piled high with unwieldy, unlikely goods are one of the Vietnamese capital’s most distinctive sights. As the city plans to ban motorbikes altogether, photographer Jon Enoch captured the drivers at work. (Photo by Jon Enoch/The Guardian)

Alligator trapper Mark Whitmire prepares an alligator he caught in a lagoon on a golf course to relocate it to a more natural environment in Orlando, Florida, U.S., June 19, 2016. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

A Iranian man walks with a sheep he bought at a market in the capital Tehran on September 12, 2016, as Muslims mark the first day of the Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) holiday. Muslims across the world celebrate the annual festival of Eid al-Adha, or the festival of sacrifice, which marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and commemorates prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son to show obedience to God. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man uses a stick to to separate the wheat grains in the Ultra-orthodox moshav of Komemiyut May 3, 2016. The harvested wheat will later be used to make the traditional unleavened bread eaten during the Jewish holiday of Passover. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

“Touring the Koko-en Gardens adjacent to the Himeji castle was an unexpected highlight of our visit”, wrote Jeff Solar, 64, of Silver Spring, Md., about his trip to Japan. “The fall colors were outstanding and the gardens were both amazing and a bargain (just a few Yen added to the cost of the Himeji Castle admission)”. (Photo by Jeff Solar/2017 Washington Post Travel Photo Contest)

Photographer Loes Heerink spent hours waiting on bridges in Hanoi to capture the street vendors who walked underneath. She recently launched a Kickstarter project to publish a book of these images. Here: “In Hanoi there are a lot of street vendors who roam the city with their bicycles trying to sell goods, from vegetables to flowers”. (Photo by Loes Heerink/The Guardian)