A lynx cub that followed a villager in the forest, is fed by a mother and her son for 2 days at the Koyulhisar district of Sivas, Turkiye on October 4, 2023. After 2 days, the lynx cub was taken under protection by the Sivas Department of Nature Conservation and National Parks teams. (Photo by Serhat Zafer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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)

Models clad in costumes of video game charactors pose at a game booth during the Tokyo Game Show 2016 in Chiba, suburb of Tokyo, on September 15, 2016. Sony took centre stage at the annual four-day event, with its virtual reality headset ready to hit store shelves for the Christmas shopping season. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)

An actor dressed as Santa Claus and wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus infection speaks with a boy during the New Year celebration in a shopping mall in St.Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, January 2, 2021. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

In this March 7, 1991 file photo, a U.S. Marine patrol walks across the charred oil landscape near a burning well during perimeter security patrol near Kuwait City. Twenty five years after the first U.S. Marines swept across the border into Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, American forces find themselves battling the extremist Islamic State group, born out of al-Qaida, in the splintered territories of Iraq and Syria. The Arab allies that joined the 1991 coalition are fighting their own conflicts both at home and abroad, as Iran vies for greater regional power following a nuclear deal with world powers. (Photo by John Gaps III/AP Photo)

A policeman aims his weapon at protesters during a curfew imposed following violence during protests against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, August 5, 2024. (Photo by Rajib Dhar/AP Photo)

General view of festival goers at the main stage on Day 3 of Download festival at Donnington Park on June 12, 2022 in Donnington, England. (Photo by Chris Bethell/The Guardian)

A mannequin wearing a face mask and nurse's uniform stands next to a sign supporting the NHS, stands in a field during the Covid-19 pandemic on October 06, 2020 in Northwich, United Kingdom. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)