(Xinhua) -- The third batch of space scientific experimental samples from China's Tiangong space station arrived in Beijing Monday, following the return of the crew of the Shenzhou-14 space mission.
The recovered experimental samples, including three cold packs of rice and Arabidopsis, and a bag with four boxes of uncontained material, were delivered to the Space Exploitation Technology and Engineering Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The seeds of the two aforementioned plants were cultivated for 120 days in Tiangong. Scientists will analyze the effects that microgravity in space has on the samples, according to the academy.
The experiment cabinet for uncontained materials in the station's "Tianhe" core module is the first in China and the second of its kind in the world to be used in orbit. It has been working in space for more than 590 days, during which it completed in-orbit experiments with seven boxes of materials.
The academy said that scientists have obtained a large amount of data through in-orbit experiments, which will help them accelerate the pace of research on the development of new materials on Earth.
The return capsule of the manned spacecraft "Shenzhou-14", which carried the three astronauts: Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuezhe, landed at the "Dongfeng" landing site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region last Sunday, after completing a mission to the space station that lasted six months.