Thus ends the second space mission of his career: Frenchman Thomas Pesquet returned to Earth overnight from Monday to Tuesday, after a six-month stay in orbit in the International Space Station which ended with a successful landing off the coast of Florida.
SpaceX's Dragon capsule, which also carried three other astronauts, was slowed down in its dizzying descent by the Earth's atmosphere and then by huge parachutes.
She landed in the Gulf of Mexico at 03:33 GMT Tuesday, at dawn in France.
Scorched by the extreme temperatures experienced during its fall, it was hoisted with the aid of a crane onto a ship which had been stationed at sea nearby.
Dragon's hatch was opened, and the first images of Thomas Pesquet showed him, still sitting on board in his spacesuit, waving a thumbs up.
The astronauts were then taken out one by one, Thomas Pesquet last.
Like the others, he was first placed on a stretcher as a precaution.
The 43-year-old Frenchman spent 199 days in zero gravity.