French-British actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg arrives to attend a state dinner in honor of Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Chateau de Versailles (Versailles Palace) in Versailles, near Paris, on the first day of their State visit to France on September 20, 2023. (Photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

A woman sits next to a Gollum figure on the “Middle-earth Shuttle” subway train November 18, 2003 in New York City. The train's cars were decorated with Middle-earth creatures, vines, moss and stones to celebrate the November 18 DVD and VHS release of the Special Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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)

Siberian tigers are fed by visitors from a bus at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province, on January 6, 2023. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

A man takes pictures of the Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, as it glows on the horizon over waters of Lake Ellesmere on the outskirts of Christchurch on April 24, 2023. (Photo by Sanka Vidanagama/AFP Photo)

A train passes as floodwaters from the Tule River inundate the area after days of heavy rain in Corcoran, California, U.S., March 22, 2023. (Photo by David Swanson/Reuters)

A painted figure is seen on a wall of the home of the mother of Robert E. Crimo III, the 21-year-old suspect facing seven counts of first-degree murder in an attack on a Fourth of July parade, in Highland Park, Illinois, U.S. July 6, 2022. (Photo by Cheney Orr/Reuters)

A woman reacts as she receives a dose of the COVISHIELD vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), manufactured by Serum Institute of India, at a vaccination centre in Ahmedabad, India, December 27, 2021. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)