Moscow - The world's fifth space tourist, Hungarian-born American billionaire Charles Simonyi, returned to Earth on Saturday, describing trip as "terrific".
The Soyuz capsule carrying Simonyi, 58, and two crew members from the International Space Station, Mikhail Tyurin of Russia and American Miguel Lopez-Alegria, touched down as planned in the steppes of Kazakhstan, a spokesperson for Russia's space centre said.
Television pictures showed Simonyi smiling and looking relaxed as he lay on the grass of the steppe, his space helmet off, enjoying the sunshine.
"It was terrific," he told the Vesti 24 channel in English. "It's good to be back on Earth."
'It's good to be back on Earth' The former Microsoft whizz kid who made his fortune helping develop the company's Word and Excel software broke the record for space tourists by spending 14 days in space.
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The lift-off on April 7 from the Baikonur launchpad drew more than the usual attention as he received a cosmic bon voyage from US homemaking queen Martha Stewart, fuelling the rampant romantic gossip about the couple.
The relationship did influence Simonyi's time on the space station, where he planned to prepare a gourmet dinner for his ISS hosts, along with conducting experiments and recording his impressions on an Internet blog, www.charlesinspace.com.
Stewart was not in Kazakhstan for the landing back on Earth, a spokesman in Moscow for Space Adventures, which organises the multi-million-dollar excursions, said. The US-based company markets one of three seats on the Soyuz on behalf of the Russian Space Agency.
An unidentified woman was seen on television embracing Simonyi on his return and heard saying, "I haven't been through what you've been through," as Simonyi explained that the trip back to Earth was difficult because he could not move his head during the entire descent.
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