The Shezhou-17 manned spacecraft was sent to the China Space Station from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Thursday. Besides the three-member crew, the spacecraft also carried 29 biological samples to the space station.

The project, named "Space Protein Molecular Assembly and Application Research," is led by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The 29 samples cover five categories: proteins, polypeptides, nucleic acids, biological materials, and pharmaceutical materials. Samples include insulin, protein complexes for cancer treatment, nucleic acid polymerase, key proteins in plant photosynthesis and collagen polypeptide.

According CAS, the microgravity environment in space can eliminate or weaken the convection and sedimentation under normal gravity field, and provide a more stable environment for the growth of high-quality protein crystals.

In addition, the fine structure of protein molecules can be obtained by X-ray diffraction to reveal their biological functions more accurately, including the relationship between normal physiological effects, pathogenic mechanisms, pharmacodynamics, side effects and molecular structure. It has a direct effect on molecular drug design and is of great significance to biomimetic biotechnology, said CAS.

The Shenzhou-17 crew is expected to stay in orbit for nearly six months, carrying out several extravehicular activities, and conducting a large number of experiments and tests in areas of basic physics in a microgravity environment, materials science, life science, space medicine and space technology.