People take photos as an Ariane 5 space rocket with a payload of four Galileo satellites lifts off from ESA's European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on November 17, 2016. Ariane 5 successfully launched on November 17 four satellites which will be part of the Galileo global satellite navigation system. (Photo by Jody Amiet/AFP Photo)

The Villarrica volcano shows signs of activity, as seen from Pucon, some 800 kilometers south of Santiago, on November 21, 2022. Villarrica volcano is among the most active in South America. (Photo by Mario Quilodran/AFP Photo)

Revellers participate in a colourful “flour war”, celebrating the “Ash Monday” or “Clean Monday”, a traditional festivity marking the end of the carnival season and the start of the 40-day Lent period until the Orthodox Easter, in the town of Galaxidi, Greece, on March 18, 2024. (Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters)

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, appear in the sky over the Bamburgh lighthouse at Stag Rock in Northumberland, England on September 28, 2016. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire via ZUMA Press)

A man walks by as tourists take selfies on the French Riviera city of Nice on June 24, 2019, as temperatures soar to 33 degrees Celsius. Forecasters say Europeans will feel sizzling heat this week with temperatures soaring as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in an “unprecedented” June heatwave hitting much of Western Europe. (Photo by Valery Hache/AFP Photo)

A man carrying a sailfish walks through Hamarweyne district in South Mogadishu on March 25, 2015. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)

A Ukrainian soldier smiles in front of a city sign reading ''I Love Izium'' in Izium, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, September 14, 2022. Ukrainian troops piled pressure on retreating Russian forces pressing deeper into occupied territory and sending more Kremlin troops fleeing ahead of the counteroffensive that has inflicted a stunning blow on Moscow's military prestige. (Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/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)