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)

“The Naval and Military Club is a gentlemen's club in London, England. It was founded in 1862 because the three then existing military clubs in London – the United Service, the Junior United Service and the Army and Navy – were all full. The membership was long restricted to military officers. This is no longer the case, but it still has a predominantly military and ex-military membership”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Members of the prestigious “In and Out Club”, one of the oldest and most exclusive clubs in London, march around St. James's Square during the club's 150th birthday celebration on March 1, 2012 in London, England. Patrons of the private members club, whose official title is the Naval and Military Club, gathered in St. James's Square in Central London before marching with the Band of the Royal Logistics Corps to be greeted by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, and retiring for lunch inside the club. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

“Jessica”, a silicon sеx doll for sexual encounters lies on a bed at the “Bordoll” brothel on April 17, 2019 in Dortmund, Germany. Bordoll is Germany's first brothel to specialize in sеx dolls. It currently offers 13 female dolls and one male doll and will soon be expanding its female line-up. Schwarz says “sеx dolls are so popular because the client can do what he wants to and nobody complains”. (Photo by Lukas Schulze/Bongarts/Getty Images)

A rabbit jumps over a hurdle at an obstacle course during the first European rabbit hopping championships, which Lada Sipova-Krecova of Czech Republic won, on October 30, 2011 in Wollerau, Switzerland. Rabbit hopping is a growing trend among rabbit owners in Central Europe. (Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)

These black-and-white photos are taken from the new book “Armoured Warfare in the First World War 1916 – 1918” by Anthony Tucker-Jones and published by Pen & Sword Military. Here: British troops hitch a ride on a Mark IV after the massed tank fleet spearheading attack at Cambrai on November 20, 1917. (Photo by Anthony Tucker-Jones/Mediadrumworld.com)

Giant panda Mei Xiang discovers a birthday cake meant for her cub Bei Bei (NP) who turns one at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC on August 20, 2016. (Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

The walls of Sydney's Town Hall Station are bedecked to resemble a Woolworths' supermarket shelf in Australia's first virtual supermarket, at Town Hall Station on February 19, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Marianna Massey/Getty Images for Woolworths)

An environmental activist adjusts his mask while taking part in “The Dead Sea Swim Challenge”, swimming from the Jordanian to Israeli shore, to draw attention to the ecological threats facing the Dead Sea, in Kibbutz Ein Gedi, Israel November 15, 2016. Swimmers from around the world plunged into the salty waters of the Dead Sea on Tuesday to attempt a seven-hour swim across the fabled lake in a bid to draw attention to its environmental degradation. Wearing protective masks and snorkels, 25 swimmers paddled through the muddy water to attempt the 9-mile (15-kilometer) swim from Jordan to Israel. (Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters)