MAJOR Tim Peake described his return to Earth as the ride of his life after touching down at the end of his historic six month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The astronaut said spending 186 days on the space station was a "life changing experience" and said he was looking forward to seeing his family and some earthly comforts - "pizza and cold beer".

After strong winds caused his Soyuz space capsule to turn over several times once it had it touched down, the astronaut looked distinctly unsteady as he was helped from the craft in Kazakhstan at 10.15am on Saturday.

But the former helicopter pilot from Chichester said: “It was incredible. The best ride I've been on ever. Truly amazing. A life-changing experience.”

His tiny descent module - little over 7ft long and 7ft in diameter - was charred and still warm to the touch from the fiery 1,600 degree heat of reentry when Maj Peake was lifted out of the capsule by ground crews.

Maj Peake, 44, who grew up in Chichester, said: "I'm just truly elated. The smells of the Earth are so strong. It's just wonderful to feel the fresh air.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the family now."

He spoke briefly by mobile phone to his parents Nigel and Angela, who live in Chichester, who told reporters they were looking forward to having their son back.

“Job well done,” said Mr Peake, who watched footage of his son’s landing from the European Space Agency’s home base in Cologne, Germany. “I’m so proud of him and what he’s achieved.”

Mrs Peake said she was looking forward to giving her son a hug and her husband agreed: “Yes, even astronauts need hugs.”

The first Briton to fly a European Space Agency (ESA) mission - and only the second British citizen ever to go to space - had been reunited with his parents at the European Astronaut Centre by Saturday evening.

Neither he nor his NASA crewmate Tim Kopra had felt up to facing the world’s media in the post-landing press conference convened at Karagandy airport in Kazakhstan, but he will share his experiences in a major press event on Tuesday.

The ESA’ director of human spaceflight, Dr David Parker, told the press: “He's done an amazing job.He's exceeded all expectations, certainly in terms of the impact that he's had back in the UK."

In commemoration of the historic event, the Royal Mail will frank this week’s stamped mail with a special “Welcome Home Tim Peake” postmark.

SIX MONTHS IN WHICH HE SET RECORDS AND BROKE BARRIERS

HIS hot and bumpy ride back to Earth was only the latest in a string of dramatic achievements for Tim Peake in the 186 days since he blasted off from a Kazakhstan launchpad on December 15 last year.

During his 186 days on the International Space Station (ISS) the former helicopter test pilot and father of two participated in more than 250 scientific experiments, performed a space walk, ran the London Marathon on a treadmill and inspired more than a million schoolchildren with educational activities.

His achievements earned him a Queen’s Birthday honour which was out of this world – Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for “extraordinary service beyond our planet”.

So perhaps he can be forgiven for forgoing the post-landing press conference after such an epic adventure, which ended in an intense journey home.

Just after 3am UK time, Major Tim departed the International Space Station (ISS) and wedged himself into the tiny Soyuz descent module alongside his crewmates, Nasa mission commander Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Manchenko.

Manchenko has now spent more days in space – 827 – than any person in history except Gennadi Padalka, who racked up 878.

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft is the same one which took them into orbit on December 15. When they closed the hatch between the station and the spacecraft at precisely 3.34am, it marked the official end of ISS Expedition 47 and Major Peake’s Principia mission.

The craft is just over 7ft tall and 7ft in diameter and the team took on water for the dehydrating return home and checked the craft was spaceworthy while waiting to undock at 6.52am.

The craft then drifted for 20m before firing a controlled 15-second “separation burn” to begin the descent. The craft had to slow from the ISS’s orbital velocity of 28,800kph in order to start the re-entry process.

Between leaving the station and touching down on the Kazakh steppe, Major Tim and his crewmates completed two full orbits of the earth.

During the course of the journey the Soyuz separated into three parts as planned. The forward orbital and rear service modules burned up harmlessly in the Earth’s atmosphere as the descent module turned to point its heat shield towards the surface.

It used the friction of the atmosphere itself to slow its descent – the density of which generated temperatures of 1,600C.

Once re-entry began at an altitude of 120km, their speed fell dramatically and forced the astronauts back into specially spring-loaded seats which help to absorb the G-force of 4 to 5g.

After a journey lasting less than an hour, the Soyuz TMA-19M “descent module” parachuted down to a remote spot on the vast Kazakhstan steppe to make what was described by officials as a “bullseye” landing.

One second before touchdown, a burst from six retro rockets beneath the capsule reduced the impact speed to 3mph.

After a relatively hard landing, the spacecraft turned over several times due to the wind speed on the Kazakh steppe. An official from Russia’s Yuri Gagarin training centre said this was why the three space travellers looked “a little green” after coming out of the capsule.

Major Peake will face a long road to full recovery after a space mission which will have left him with lower bone density and up to one pint less blood in his system than the day he blasted off.

He will spend three weeks under close medical scrutiny in the German Space Agency’s unit in Cologne, while helping European Space Agency scientists perform experiments to see how his body adapts to feeling the effects of gravity once again.

Maj Peake has been doing 23 tests on his body while in space. They will be compared to results gathered from identical tests on Earth.

He will also be put on a tilt table – a device that can swiftly rotate him for a horizontal to a vertical position to see how his heart and blood circulation cope with gravity once more.

Major Peake’s shaky walk away from the craft represented the final chapter of an extraordinary six months in which he has set records and broken barriers.

Nasa astronauts with joint British citizenship have flown previously, but Major Peake is the only Briton to have been sent into space by the British government via the European Space Agency.

His mission was named Principia after Sir Isaac Newton’s landmark work describing the laws of motion and gravity.

During his time in space he worked up to 14 hours a day, participating in more than 250 experiments devised by scientists from around the world.

Among the more lighthearted experiments carried out by the record-breaking astronaut was a film of him tumbling head over heels spinning around 80 times to discover whether you can get dizzy in space. The answer? “Definitely”.

He said the highlight of his mission was the space walk he conducted with Colonel Kopra in January to repair electrical components on the outside of the space station – the first spacewalk ever conducted by a British-born astronaut.