China sent its first female astronaut into space as the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft lifted off from Jiuquan in the northwestern Gansu province.

Air-force pilot Liu Yang and two male astronauts blasted off at 6:37 p.m. Beijing time ahead of the country’s first manned orbital docking with the Tiangong-1, or “Heavenly Palace” module, according to a live broadcast on China’s Central Television. They will work on the module for about a week.

Chinese state media have touted Liu’s accomplishments over the past week, framing her selection as part of the country’s broader push to expand its space program while other nations cut back. The launch brings China a step closer to its goal of operating a permanent manned space station and putting a person on the moon by 2020.

Liu has 1,680 hours of flying time and is the deputy head of a flight unit in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, Xinhua reported yesterday. She was recruited to be a potential astronaut in 2010, the news agency said.

China sent its first man into orbit and conducted its first spacewalk decades later than the U.S. and Russia. The U.S. ended its three-decade manned space-shuttle program last year and now has no manned spaceflight capability.

“China is ready to have international cooperation, including with the U.S. side, in the space program,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said yesterday. “The achievement China has made in its space program is the result of the Chinese people’s hard work and innovation.”

The U.S. plans to operate the International Space Station, a research laboratory that orbits about 240 miles above Earth, through 2020. In 2010, President Barack Obama scrapped plans to return astronauts to the moon, setting a goal instead of making a “leap into the future” of deep-space travel.