Space tourist returns to earth

Three space explorers including American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari today began getting reacquainted with their home planet, undergoing medical checks and coping with the unfamiliarity of gravity.

Ansari, Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams were flown to Moscow hours after a bone-rattling journey in a cramped capsule from the international space station to the steppes of Kazakhstan.