Anousheh Ansari, the world's first female paying space tourist, returned to Earth on Friday after an 11-day sojourn in space, capped by the bone-jarring journey home from the international space station.

Ansari, Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams had left the station aboard a cramped Russian Soyuz capsule a little over three hours before landing as dawn broke over the steppes of Kazakhstan.

After the capsule entered the Earth's atmosphere, search and rescue teams in three planes and 12 helicopters tracked the trajectory and scrambled to help pull the crew out of the craft, which landed on its side.

Officials monitoring the landing from Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow applauded after confirming that the capsule had landed in the target zone around 90 kilometres north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 5:14 am Moscow time (0114 GMT). The crew felt well, Mission Control said.

Ansari, wrapped in a fur-lined blanket to guard against the early morning chill, smiled as she sat in a chair surrounded by high grass after exiting the Soyuz. An unidentified official presented her with a large bouquet of red roses. Vinogradov, munching an apple, and Williams sat in chairs nearby. Temperatures hovered around minus 3 C.

Ansari's husband Hamid surprised her, coming up from behind her chair and maneuvering around her space helmet to plant a kiss on her mouth. Rescuers then picked up all three chairs and carried them to waiting helicopters for the flight to Kustanai, Kazakhstan, where they took part in a welcome ceremony.

All three space travellers, along with Hamid Ansari, were presented with intricately embroidered Kazakh robes and hats.

Anousheh Ansari said at the ceremony that the most striking things about her space journey were seeing the Earth from space and the deep friendship developed aboard the orbiting station. The space travellers were to undergo a quick medical evaluation as soon as they exited the capsule.

Ansari, an Iran-born American telecommunications entrepreneur, was a last-minute choice for the mission, which blasted off from the Russian manned space launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on September 18.

Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto was scheduled to be on the launch, but he was scrubbed from the trip in late August for unspecified medical reasons.

Ansari, 40, was the fourth person, and the first woman, to pay a reported US$20 million for a trip to the international space station. Briton Helen Sharman in 1991 took a trip to Russia's Mir station that she won through a contest.

In her native Iran, Ansari has become an inspiration to many women. Scores of women went to an observatory near Teheran last week to watch the space station streak across the sky at dawn.

(China Daily 09/30/2006 page6)