Pictures show NASA astronaut Anne McClain being helped from her capsule after safely returning to Earth following a six-month stint on the International Space Station.
The American looked thrilled to have completed her maiden flight.
The Soyuz capsule, inset, carrying Ms McClain and two other astronauts, Russian Oleg Kononenko and Canadian David Saint-Jacques, landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 8.47am local time today after a three-and-a-half-hour flight from the orbiting lab.
They were put on camping chairs in the sun for some initial medical checks.
When asked by a reporter if he liked the weather, Mr Kononenko said he was “happy to see any kind of weather” after more than 200 days in space.
