World's second space tourist comes down to earth

South African Internet millionaire Mark Shuttleworth, the world’s second space tourist, landed safely in Kazakhstan early today - and said his space voyage was ‘‘the best thing I’ve ever done’’.

The charred Soyuz capsule landed right on schedule at 7.51am Moscow time (4.51 Irish time) near the Kazakh town of Arkalyk, after a descent of more than three hours under bright blue skies.

‘‘It was just the most wonderful experience ever. It was fantastic,’’ said Shuttleworth, a 28-year old Internet magnate, after he emerged from the capsule.

A bystander handed him a blue egg in honour of Orthodox Easter and his father knelt beside him, talking about the trip.

Shuttle worth will not soon forget his $20m (€21.8m) voyage.

To make sure he will have a souvenir of the 10-day journey into space, he has bought the Soyuz capsule and his space suit.

Ecstatic, smiling continuously once he emerged from the capsule, Shuttleworth said he would go into space again - at any time.

Shuttleworth was the last of the crew to come out, and all three were carried to a nearby medical tent for their first checks.

The landing site was ringed with helicopters and surrounded by medical experts and technicians.

Back in Moscow, Shuttleworth’s mother, Patronelle, who spent the night at Mission Control, covered her face with her hands during the landing, peeking occasionally at the big screen monitoring the landing, and burst into tears after the successful touchdown was announced.

‘‘Complete and absolute relief,’’ she said over and over. ‘‘It’s not your everyday family experience.’’

She said she had been sleeping in snatches over the last week while her son was in space. Her husband had appeared tense as he waited for his son to emerge.

Shuttleworth’s brother, Bradley, who was also on hand, said: ‘‘I’m glad to have him on terra firma. I’m stunned at how fast it went these last 10 days.

‘‘I wonder if he’ll want to do it again.’’

Several hours earlier, at 4.31am Moscow time (0131 Irish time) the capsule had successfully undocked from the International Space Station, starting the descent process.

Patronelle Shuttleworth said: ‘‘I’m quite nervous. It’s been a roller coaster ride.

‘‘You never imagine your son doing something like this. That’s just not something that’s an option for most of us.’’

On his last day aboard the station, Shuttleworth caught up on some sleep, allowing himself an extra hour.

But Shuttleworth’s mission was jam-packed with experiments and projects, enough to keep the world’s second paying space tourist busy at work from 6am to about 11.30pm most days.

Five Russian planes, nine helicopters and five cross-country rescue vehicles were on call to retrieve Shuttleworth and his two crewmates, Flight Commander Yuri Gidzenko and rookie Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, from their landing in the barren Kazakh steppes.

Russian technicians, working from Earth, test-fired the Soyuz’s engines on Thursday in preparation for departure.

In a well-rehearsed procedure, a few hours before undocking, the Soyuz crew switched on the power supply, squeezed into their spacesuits and strapped themselves snugly into the cramped quarters.

The three-ton capsule resembles a fiery ball as it plunges at 10 times the speed of sound through the Earth’s atmosphere, its outer wall reaching temperatures of 10,000 degrees celsius (18,000 Fahrenheit).

A natural drag slows the capsule down and just before impact, a parachute automatically opens, reducing its speed even further.

Just seconds before touching ground, the capsule’s engines fire in an attempt to give the crew a ‘‘soft’’ landing.

But even a soft landing can still shake-up the crew, whose bodies must quickly adjust from zero-gravity to Earth’s gravitational pull. The Russian Soyuz capsule is also known to frequently end up on its side during landing.

When the world’s first space tourist, American businessman Dennis Tito, returned from his flight last year, he followed an already popular tradition and took advantage of the help offered him choosing to be carried in his chair after landing rather than testing out his still-unsteady legs.

Shuttleworth followed in that tradition.

After landing, Shuttleworth and the other crew will be evaluated by Russian medical experts, then the trio will return to Russia’s Star City for more observation.

Rick Shuttleworth said that when his son is cleared by medical experts, his family planned to take him on vacation.

He added that in the autumn, his son planned a tour around schools in his native South Africa to promote space studies.