This photo taken on May 20, 2020 shows elementary school students wearing wings to maintain social distancing amid concerns of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in a classroom in Taiyuan in China's northern Shanxi province. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

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)

Miss Wisconsin Haley Laundrie competes in the evening gown competition during the preliminary round of the 2015 Miss USA Pageant in Baton Rouge, La., Wednesday, July 8, 2015. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

This 1972 VW Beetle was one of over 150 cars at the eighth annual historic U.S Route 40 Mini-Nationals car show held on Sunday at Tecumseh high school. (Photo by Marshall Gorby/AP Photo)

Britain's Emma Raducanu attends a practice session ahead of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 13, 2022. (Photo by Mike Frey/AFP Photo)

An ascetic performs yoga at his makeshift tent near the banks of Sangam -the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati river during the Magh Mela festival in Allahabad on January 28, 2022. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

American actress, singer, and model Zoë Kravitz poses for photographers upon arrival for the screening of the film “The Batman” in London Wednesday, February 23, 2022. (Photo by Joel C. Ryan/Invision/AP Photo)

An Afghan vendor selling birds to be kept as pets wait for customers in his shop in Kabul on December 11, 2021. (Photo by Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP Photo)