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)

Frander Arroyo, select wings of butterflies at Blue Morpho Butterfly House in Alajuela, Costa Rica, March 10, 2016. According to Arroyo, owner of Blue Morpho Butterfly House, he collects dead butterflies from his garden to mount as handicraft like earrings, necklaces, paintings and rings for export with prices ranging from $12 to $16 a piece. (Photo by Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters)

(L-R) Edmea Pereira, 69, Elsa Rodrigues, 61, and Osmidio Conde, 71, take part in their surf class in Santos, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, March 16, 2016. When work is up, surf is up in Brazil, as a group of retired citizens take to the waves in keep-fit, keep-young sessions at a surf school in the city of Santos. The classes are run for free, three times a week at the Cisco Arana school, which aims to prove that age is just a number. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

High-wire artist Kane Petersen successfully walks a tightrope 300 metres above the ground at Eureka Skydeck on September 16, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. The walk was the highest tightrope walk ever attempted in the Southern Hemisphere. The stunt is to mark the arrival of the film “The Walk” to Australian cinemas in October. The stunt saw Kane mimic the film's French high-wire artist Philippe Petit, who successfully walked between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

A F-16 fighter jet from The Thai Royal Air Force performs during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, November 24, 2015. Thailand's military held an air show with China on Tuesday ahead of joint manoeuvres in a sign of warming ties, but Thailand said it was not distancing itself from the United States which downgraded the military relationship following a 2014 coup. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

In Jukkasjärvi, a village a few miles east of Kiruna, the proprietors of one hotel begin planning for a winter ice festival in March. That’s when they begin collecting some 5,000 tons of ice from the River Torne in order to prepare the Icehotel, the world’s coolest place to stay. Options for overnight stay include snow rooms, ice rooms, art suites, and the Northern Lights room, all of which range from about $300 to $900 per night. But the deluxe suite’s the only way to go. These rooms come with a critical amenity: heated ensuite bathrooms and saunas. Here: A man walks into a room in the Ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, December 16, 2015. (Photo by Ints Kalnins/Reuters)

Activists protest the Shell Oil Company's drilling rig Polar Pioneer which is parked at Terminal 5 at the Port of Seattle, Washington May 16, 2015. Hundreds of activists in kayaks and small boats fanned out on a Seattle bay on Saturday to protest plans by Royal Dutch Shell to resume oil exploration in the Arctic and keep two of its drilling rigs stored in the city's port. (Photo by Jason Redmond/Reuters)

In this Thursday, May 16, 2013 file photo, Finland's Krista Siegfrids, second right, kisses a dancer as she performs her song “Marry Me” during the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest at the Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden. That was the first girl-on-girl kiss in the history of the annual competition. Previously, organizers had sought to prevent similar embraces citing the competition's status as a family event. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)