The first female paying space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, has landed safely on the Kazakh steppe after a journey back from the International Space Station (ISS).
The Soyuz capsule also carried fellow US astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. It landed in the 90km predicted zone.
The craft slowed its descent by firing rockets and opening parachutes until it landed softly on its side in a field.
A dozen helicopter rescue teams rushed over to help the astronauts out. The 40-year-old Iranian-born US businesswoman smiled weakly as she exited the Russian capsule, BBC reported.
She is thought to have paid at least USD 20 M for a holiday in space which she said she "hoped to do again soon".