Almaty, Kazakhstan (Agencies): The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Christina Koch returned to Earth safely on Thursday after shattering the space-flight record for female astronauts with a stay of almost 11 months aboard the International Space Station. 

Koch touched down at 0912 GMT on the Kazakh steppe after 328 days in space, along with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency. The Kazakh Steppe lies at the southern end of the Ural Mountains, the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia. Much of the steppe is considered to be semi-desert, grading into desert as one goes further south.

Koch was shown seated and smiling broadly after being extracted from the Soyuz descent module. “I am so overwhelmed and happy right now,” said Koch, who blasted off on March 14 last year. 

Parmitano pumped his fists in the air after being lifted into his chair while Skvortsov                              bit into an apple.

US President Donald Trump congratulated Koch on Twitter. “Welcome back to Earth, @Astro_Christina, and congratulations on breaking the female record for the longest stay in space! You’re inspiring young women and making the USA proud!” he tweeted.

Local Kazakhs on horseback were among those to witness the capsule landing in the snow-covered steppe as support crews gathered around the three astronauts.

Koch, a 41-year-old Michigan-born engineer, on December 28 beat the previous record for a single space-flight by a woman of 289 days, set by NASA veteran Peggy Whitson in 2016-17.

Koch called three-time flyer Whitson, now 60, “a heroine of mine” and a “mentor” in the space programme after she surpassed the record.

She spoke of her desire to “inspire the next generation of explorers.”

Koch will now head to NASA headquarters in Houston, via the Kazakh city of Karaganda and Cologne in Germany, where she will undergo medical testing. Koch’s medical data will be especially valuable to NASA scientists as the agency draws up plans for a long-duration manned mission to Mars.

Four male cosmonauts have spent a year or longer in space as part of a single mission with Russian Valery Polyakov’s 437 days the overall record.