NASA's Christina Koch returned to Earth safely onThursday after shattering spaceflight record for female astronauts with a stayof almost 11 months aboard the International Space Station.
Koch toucheddown at 0912 GMT on the Kazakh steppe after 328 days in space, along with LucaParmitano of the European Space Agency and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russianspace agency.
After being extracted from the Soyuz descent modulein the Roscosmos space agency's video footage from the landing site, Koch wasshown seated and smiling broadly.
Koch, who blasted off on March 14 last year said, "Iam so overwhelmed and happy right now."
Parmitano pumped his fists in the air after beinglifted into his chair while Skvortsov bit into an apple.
US President Donald Trump congratulated Koch onTwitter.
Trump in a Tweet said, "Welcome back to Earth,@Astro_Christina, and congratulations on breaking the female record for thelongest stay in space! You're inspiring young women and making the USAproud!"
Local Kazakhs on horseback were among those towitness the capsule landing in the snow-covered steppe as support crewsgathered around the three astronauts, NASA commentator Rob Navias said.
"I've never seen this," Navias exclaimed,reporting that the men stopped to chat with engineering personnel.
The 41-year-old Michigan-born engineer, Koch onDecember 28 beat the previous record for a single spaceflight by a woman of 289days, set by NASA veteran Peggy Whitson in 2016-17.
Koch called three-time flyer Whitson, now 60,"a heroine of mine" and a "mentor" in the space programmeafter she surpassed the record.
She spoke of her desire to "inspire the nextgeneration of explorers."
Koch also made history as one half of the first-everall-woman spacewalk along with NASA counterpart Jessica Meir — her classmatefrom NASA training — in October.
