A girl in a military uniform poses for a photo after the see-off ceremony before the launch in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 25 April 2024. China's Shenzhou-18 manned spaceflight mission with three astronauts is the third manned spaceflight mission of China Space Station's development phase. The mission will last for about six months and the crew will carry out tasks such as installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair, and experiments in space. (Photo by Wu Hao/EPA/EFE)

Hideki Tokoro, president of whaling company Kyodo Senpaku, boards Japan's new whaling mothership, the Kangei Maru, following the ship's launch ceremony at a port in Shimonoseki city, Yamaguchi prefecture on May 21, 2024. The nearly 9,300-tonne ship set sail on its maiden hunting voyage on May 21, heralding a new era for the controversial practice defended by the government as an integral part of national culture. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP Photo)

China's independently developed Zhuque-3 reusable test rocket conducts a flight test at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on September 11, 2024 in Jiuquan, Gansu Province of China. China's private space company LandSpace successfully conducted a 10-kilometer vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) test on September 11. (Photo by Ni Yanqiang, Zeng Yangxi/Zhejiang Daily Press Group/VCG via Getty Images)

This handout picture released by the Gagarin Cosmonauts' Training Centre on October 17, 2023 shows Marina Vasilevskaya (L) flying during a parabolic flight aboard a zero-gravity simulator, a Russian IL-76 MDK aircraft used for cosmonauts' training flights in weightlessness, in Star City outside Moscow. (Photo by Pavel Shvets/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center/AFP Photo)

In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the USS Stout launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn March 19, 2011. This was one of approximately 110 cruise missiles fired from U.S. and British ships and submarines targetting about 20 radar and anti-aircraft sites along Libya's Mediterranean coast.

A resident receives a dose of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a rural village on December 01, 2021 in Aringay, La Union province, Philippines. The Philippines is rushing to vaccinate its population as it mulls making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory and amid the looming threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The country, which has just approved booster shots for its adult population, launched a three-day national vaccination holiday on November 29 to December 1 with the goal of vaccinating at least nine million additional people. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

“SpaceShipOne was a suborbital air-launched spaceplane that completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mothership was named “White Knight”. Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A chase plane follows SpaceShipOne after it reached a height of 62 miles in the first non-governmental flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere on June 21, 2004 in Mojave, California. SpaceShipOne spacecraft was carried to a height of 50,000 by the twin-turbojet high-altitude research aircraft, “White Knight”, where it was launched for its final climb. The space effort was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and headed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. (Photo by Jim Campbell-Pool/Getty Images)