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 robotic legged squad support system (LS3) machines by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency follow a technician during a demonstration at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia, on September 10, 2012. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mallory S. VanderSchans via The Atlantic)

Children of Indian laborers play on make-shift swings in Amritsar, India, May 12, 2015. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

Rutgers Scarlet Knights cheerleaders perform during a game against the Connecticut Huskies at High Point Solutions Stadium on October 6, 2012 in Piscataway, New Jersey. Rutgers defeated Connecticut 19-3. (Photo by Rich Schultz)

The setting sun illuminates the sky behind wind turbines of a wind park near Neusiedl am See, December 22, 2014. (Photo by Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters)

India: A sweeper cleans the side of a road near a replica of the Eiffel Tower amid heavy fog in the early morning in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh January 18, 2010. (Photo by Ajay Verma/Reuters)

A man walks through the morning mist in a park in Rozzano, near Milan, northern Italy, Thursday, December 17, 2015. (Photo by Antonio Calanni/AP Photo)

An aircraft passes over houses at it lands at Heathrow Airport near London, Britain, December 11, 2015. Picture taken December 11, 2015. (Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters)