Washington (AFP)

A "soft" landing and a "unique experience", a little different from the landings aboard Russian Soyuz vessels: the astronauts brought back Sunday from the International Space Station by the company SpaceX described Thursday their return to Earth, after more than 160 days in space.

"At one point I was just saying to myself, breathe. Breathe in. Because I was feeling very heavy," said American Victor Glover, one of the four astronauts in the crew called Crew-1.

"Kind of like those cartoon characters when they're faced with the g-force (acceleration), and their faces twist downward."

This was the first regular mission to be taken and then returned from the ISS by billionaire Elon Musk's company.

The astronauts made the trip aboard the Crew Dragon capsule, which arrived in the sea off Florida overnight from Saturday to Sunday.

"I expected it to be such an ordeal that finally when it happened for real, it was a little less than I imagined", added Victor Glover at a conference of hurry.

The weight of the acceleration was concentrated "in the chest", he described, "which made it difficult to breathe."

But "taking off and coming back are such unique experiences," he said.

"The impact was really minimal and just after the landing, you could feel the waves," said the Japanese Soichi Noguchi.

"We're coming back to the blue planet (...), it's a great feeling."

NASA has contracted with SpaceX to be able to start launching astronauts into space again from American soil, which had not been possible since 2011 with the end of space shuttles.

Until now, they were forced to board Russian Soyuz vessels, which land on dry land.

“Landing in the water was interesting, because none of us knew what to expect,” said Shannon Walker of the United States.

"From my perspective, it was a bit smoother than arriving on land."

Soon, civilians who are not professional astronauts will take their places in Dragon, for space tourism missions.

The astronauts were asked: will these ordinary men be able to cope with re-entry into the atmosphere in this vehicle?

“I think they can take it just as well,” said American Mike Hopkins.

The latter was the first to raise his hand when asked if they would be ready to leave.

And Victor Glover the only one not to have done so.

"I am very happy to be on dry land and I will enjoy it for a while," said the latter, with a big smile.

© 2021 AFP