Wild foxes walk in front of a launch pad prior the launch of the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz MS space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, July 7, 2016. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, and Japan astronaut Takuya Onishi. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

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)

The Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew blasts off from the launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, July 23, 2015. The Russian rocket carries Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, U.S. astronaut Kjell Lindgen and Japan astronaut Kimiya Yui. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft is transported from an assembling hangar to its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, August 31, 2015. The Soyuz is scheduled to blast off with Aidyn Aimbetov of Kazakhstan, Sergei Volkov of Russia and Andreas Mogensen of Denmark to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 2, 2015. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

The space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida May 14, 2010. (Photo by Pierre Ducharme/Reuters)

SpaceX launch of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites on Mission 12-2 on December 23, 2024. The rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A in Florida. (Photo by USA Today)

A “friendly giant” sculpture hangs from a tree in the Hanmer Heritage Forest at Hammer Springs, New Zealand, Sunday, June 14, 2020. Christchurch sculptor Andrew Lyons created the creatures out of a redwood tree that had to be removed from nearby Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa in 2018 and carved nine sculptures including big friendly giant, some enormous mushrooms, a falcon, and a dog. (Photo by Mark Baker/AP Photo)

In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), SpaceX's Falcon 9 is moved to the launch pad prior to the rocket's Thales Alenia Space launch attempt on April 26, 2015 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)