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 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)

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)

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)

Russia's Soyuz-FG booster rocket with the space capsule Soyuz TMA-16M that will carry a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) is transported from the hangar to the launch pad in Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 25, 2015. (Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Nora White, 6, dumps a cup of water on her sister Kennedy White, 3, at Barnett Field Splash Pad in Edmond, Okla., on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.(Photo by Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman via USA TODAY Network)

Policemen take pictures of the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft while it is transported from an assembling hangar to its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, July 20, 2015. The Soyuz is scheduled to blast off with Kjell Lindgren of the U.S., Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Kononenko of Russia to the International Space Station on July 23, 2015. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)