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)

In this Friday, December 4, 2018 photo, a half sunken cruise ship lays on its side, in the Gulf of Elefsina, west of Athens. Dozens of abandoned cargo and passenger ships lie semi-submerged or completely sunken around the Gulf of Elefsina, near Greece’s major port of Piraeus. Now authorities are beginning to remove the dilapidated ships. Some of them have been there for decades, leaking hazards like oil into the environment and creating a danger to modern shipping. One expert calls the abandoned ships “an environmental bomb”. (Photo by Thanassis Stavrakis/AP Photo)

Labourers load a three-wheeled vehicle onto the back of a van at the Mercato market in Addis Ababa October 9, 2015. Addis Ababa's “Mercato” – Italian for “market” – is reputedly the biggest open-air market in Africa, lying in the west of the capital. (Photo by Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)

American pop star Nicole Scherzinger, 43, of NBC's Annie Live! and FOX's The Masked Singer visits The Empire State Building on November 12, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)

Actress Margaret Qualley is seen backstage during the 97th Annual Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 02, 2025 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by John Shearer/97th Oscars/The Academy via Getty Images)

Hotel staff practice self-defence skills after a training session given by team member of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 7, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Police walk past a burning car during riots in Birmingham City Centre on August 8, 2011 in Birmingham, England. After three nights of rioting and looting in and around London, the chaos is starting to spread to other cities around Britain. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A walrus kisses a visitor during a sea animal show at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, Monday, September 11, 2017. (Photo by Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Photo)