Astronauts Nie Haisheng (C), Liu Boming (R) and Tang Hongbo are out of the return capsule of the Shenzhou-12 spaceship at the Dongfeng landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on September 17, 2021. Three Chinese astronauts, the first sent to orbit for space station construction, have completed their three-month mission and returned to Earth safely on Friday. Photo by Lian Zhen/Xinhua News Agency)

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)

Chinese security stands near a Long March 2F rocket carrying Tiangong-1, China's first unmanned space module, stands at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on September 28, 2011 in Jiuquan, Gansu Province of China. Tiangong-1,a small unmanned space lab, will be launched at 21:19 (Beijing time) on September 29, 2011, and will attempt a docking procedure with a Shenzhou 8 spacecraft later in the mission. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Liu Yang, China's first female astronaut, waves during a departure ceremony at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, on June 16, 2012. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters via The Atlantic)

Pregnant Tibetan antelopes move across the Qinghai-Tibet highway in Hoh Xil, northwest China's Qinghai Province, May 29, 2023. A growing number of pregnant Tibetan antelopes are migrating to the heart of northwest China's Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve to give birth, according to the reserve's management office. Every year, tens of thousands of pregnant Tibetan antelopes start their migration to Hoh Xil in around May to give birth and leave with their offspring in late July. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

This aerial photo taken on June 13, 2021 shows an image of youths, created by growing different varieties of rice, in a paddy in Shenyang, China's northeastern Liaoning province. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

A woman dressed in Qing dynasty style clothing rides a bicycle along a street near the Forbidden City in Beijing on October 24, 2023. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

A demonstrator dances as riot police try to prevent LGBT rights activists gather for a Pride parade, which was banned by local authorities, in central in Istanbul, Turkey on June 26, 2021. (Photo by Dilara Senkaya/Reuters)