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)

A woman at Foyles bookshop looks at a copy of J. K. Rowling's latest novel “The Casual Vacancy” which has gone on sale today starting at 8:00 am on September 27, 2012 in London, England. “The Casual Vacancy” is J. K. Rowling's first book aimed at an adult readership and is centered on a parish council election in a small West Country town. (Photo by Oli Scarf)

A woman waits to hear about her sister, a teacher, following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. A man killed his mother at their home and then opened fire inside the elementary school where she taught, massacring 26 people, including 20 children, as youngsters cowered in fear to the sound of gunshots reverberating through the building and screams echoing over the intercom. (Photo by Jessica Hill/Associated Press)

A man carries an injured woman in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria January 9, 2016. At least 70 people died in what activists said where four vacuum bombs dropped by the Russian air force in the town of Maaret al-Numan; other air strikes where also carried out in the towns of Saraqib, Khan Sheikhoun and Maar Dabseh, in Idlib. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

In this April 28, 2014 file photo, a woman throws a rock and a bag at police blocking her from getting home in the Huepetuhe district of the Madre de Dios region of Peru. Security forces began destroying illegal gold mining machinery in Peru's southeastern jungle region of Madre de Dios, as authorities began enforcing a ban on illegal mining. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A woman browses through kimonos for sale at Boroichi flea market in Tokyo December 15, 2014. In the 16th century, Boroichi was a place for farmers to buy and sell rags, known as boro, for mending clothes and weaving sandals. Now in its 436th year, the original spirit lingers, with about 700 stands hawking fabric, used clothes and piles of rags. Others sell kitchen tools, pottery, seaweed and spices. About 200,000 people flock to the market, which is only open for four mid-winter days a year – two in December and two in January. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

In this photo taken on Sunday, March 15, 2015, a Nenets woman rides steers a sled during a reindeer race at the Reindeer Herder's Day in the city of Nadym, in Yamal-Nenets Region, 2500 kilometers (about 1553 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia. For the indigenous nomadic Nenets people, the Reindeer Herder's Day offers a chance to show their prowess in wrestling, high jumps and other traditional local sports, but, above all, reindeer races. (Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A woman plays around as she walks across a glass-bottomed suspension bridge in a scenic zone in Pingjiang county in southern China's Hunan province Thursday, September 24, 2015. The bridge, 300 meters (984 feet) long and 180 meters (590 feet), opened to visitors on Thursday for the first time since its conversion from a regular suspension bridge was completed. (Photo by Chinatopix Via AP Photo)