A general view of Stonehenge during the annual Perseid meteor shower in the night sky in Salisbury Plain, southern England August 13, 2013. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by comet Swift-Tuttle. Picture taken using a long exposure. (Photo by Kieran Doherty/Reuters)

Measuring just five feet at its widest point, the ultra-thin home was unveiled in the Polish capital of Warsaw on Sunday, October 21, 2012. Photo: The Keret House is squeezed into the space between two apartment buildings in Warsaw. There's a four-inch gap between the apartment buildings to either side. A perforated steel facade was used to allow in more light. (Photo by Andrea Meichsner/The New York Times)

In this artist illustration handout from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is seen. According to NASA, the 12,500 pound satellite will fall from orbit into earth's atmosphere anytime between September 22 through 24. It is estimated that the space craft will break up into about 100 pieces, with an estimated 26 of which could hit the earth over a possible 500 mile debris field. (Illustration by NASA via Getty Images)

Tercio Galdino, 66, and his wife Aliceia, 65, wear their protective “space suits” as they walk on the sidewalk of Copacabana Beach amid the coronavirus outbreak in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 11, 2020. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

Soldiers of the French Air and Space Force who took part in the Skyros Operation get ready prior to the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14, 2021. (Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP Photo)

A Palestinian man plays with a horse at the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday October 1, 2021. The beach is one of the few open public spaces in this densely populated city. (Photo by Hatem Moussa/AP Photo)

The International Space Station (ISS) moves along its orbit above at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, July 18, 2019, with a statue of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin in the foreground. Circular star tracks around the Polar Star and tracks of the ISS is the result of the camera multiple exposure with a total duration of two hours. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

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)