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)

Two chimpanzees share a piece of watermelon at Taronga Zoo on December 23, 2010 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Rick Stevens/Taronga Zoo via Getty Images)

A young boy adjusts his friend's Adolf Hitler mask during a game on a street in King's Cross, London. (Photo by William Vanderson/Getty Images). 1938

Students from CAS Ballet Theatre School stretch on the sidewalk Saturday, February 20, 2016, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Photo by Junfu Han/The Ann Arbor News via AP Photo)

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man uses a stick to to separate the wheat grains in the Ultra-orthodox moshav of Komemiyut May 3, 2016. The harvested wheat will later be used to make the traditional unleavened bread eaten during the Jewish holiday of Passover. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

The aurora borealis, or the northern lights occur over Derwentwater, near Keswick, England, Thursday October 8, 2015. The northern lights are the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire via AP Photo)

"Steve McCurry: India", co-organized by the Rubin Museum and the International Center of Photography, brings together photographs of India-its people, monuments, landscapes, seasons, and cities. The exhibition at the Rubin Museum in New York runs from November 18, 2015 – April 4, 2016. Here: A boy in mid-flight in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, in 2007. (Photo by Steve McCurry)