A Chinese girl touches the gun of a relievo featuring Chinese soldiers fighting with Japanese troops during World War II at an exhibition at the Anti-Japan War Museum to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japan on August 18, 2005 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

A workman walks past a large mural on the side of a building during the “Sand Sea & Spray” Urban Art Festival in Blackpool, north west England on July 11, 2015. (Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP Photo)

The burning Polaris of Jose Antonio Blangino of Argentina sits in the sand dunes during stage one of the 2012 Dakar Rally from Mar Del Plata to Santa Rosa de la Pampa on January 1, 2012 in Santa Rosa de la Pampa, Argentina. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

Former NBA player Yao Ming (R), a member of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, is seen during an interview in Beijing, China, in this picture taken March 9, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Clearing skies await a tripod-toting photographer looking for a spot to capture the early-morning light at Portland Head Light, Thursday, January 17, 2013, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

A wounded member of the Afghan police reaction force waits for treatment in Alingar, Laghman province, on April 30, 2012. A bomb exploded next to opium poppy fields during a poppy eradication campaign in, wounding two Afghan policemen, police officials said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

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)

Thor, Virginia Tech College of Engineering, Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, tries to connect the hose to a firehose connection during the hose task at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Friday, December 20, 2013, in Homestead, Fla. (Photo by Alan Diaz/AP Photo)