Japanese professional wrestler Hiromu Takahashi attends a promotional event of a dinosaur show “Dino Safari Gigant” in Tokyo on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. A dinosaur show using dinosaur shaped mrchanical suits will be performed in Yokohama from August 10. (Photo by Yoshio Tsunoda/AFLO/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An Aston Villa fan outside Villa Park before the side’s Premier League match against Liverpool in Birmingham, Britain on May 13, 2024. The game finished 3-3, shoring up Villa’s hopes of a top-four finish and a Champions League spot for next season. (Photo by Carl Recine/Reuters)

Britain's Molly Caudery competes in the women's pole vault finals during the IAAF Diamond League competition on May 10, 2024 at the Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium in the Qatari capital Doha. (Photo by Karim Jaafar/AFP Photo)

Sunisa Lee competes on the beam during the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Sunday, June 2, 2024, in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Julio Cortez/AP Photo)

Britain's Alice Kinsella competes in the balance beam event of the artistic gymnastics women's qualification during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris, on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP Photo)

Performers dressed with flower pots on their heads perform during a media preview of the Pacific National Exhibition Fair in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, August 15, 2024. Marking its 114th year, the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) Fair, one of the longest running events in Canada, runs from Aug. 17 to Sept. 2 here this year. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)