Korea's first astronaut Yi So-yeon returned to Earth safe Saturday after spending 12 days in space, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said Saturday.
The institute said the Soyuz TMA-11, carrying Yi, U.S. woman astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, landed in the steppe in north Kazakhstan at around 5:30 p.m.
Yi was fine in a health check shortly after being rescued by the search team, with her blood pressure normal at 75-127, and her stay in space was officially confirmed 10 days,
one hour and four minutes.
The landing capsule veered 420 kilometers west off the targeted landing point, which made the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Moscow to delay the announcement of its official landing 20 minutes from the scheduled landing hour, an institute official said..
More than 10 search and rescue helicopters were immediately mobilized as the capsule touched down far away from the targeted place and tensions about the possible problem of the module was high at MCC in Moscow, he said.
The 29-year-old biosystems engineer made history by becoming the first South Korean to go into orbit as she blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:16 GMT on April 8.
She transferred to the International Space Station (ISS) two days later and successfully conducted 18 experiments and numerous TV and radio interviews designed to bolster national interest in space exploration.
She is the 49th woman to reach space and the 158th person to visit the ISS, orbiting 350 kilometers above Earth.
Yi's mission to space makes South Korea the 36th country to send a person into orbit.
Medical personnel are to check the crew before they are moved to a specialized medical facility at the Gagarin Space Center in Russia, where they will remain for a week for monitoring.
Yi is expected to return to South Korea on April 28.