After 186 days in space and a journey back to Earth at more than 17,000 miles an hour in temperatures of 1600C, it is no surprise Major Tim Peake was looking forward to some home comforts after arriving back on earth.

The British astronaut said he would treat himself to a pizza and cold beer after his Soyuz space capsule safely touched down in a remote patch of the Kazakhstan steppe yesterday morning around 10.15am.

However he did not feel well enough to appear at a welcome ceremony several hours later. Officials said he was okay - but pointed out that he had just come back from space.

Immediately after landing, Peake and his fellow crew members - American Nasa astronaut Colonel Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko - were lifted one by one out of the tiny craft and placed in comfortable chairs.

Looking exhausted at first after a bumpy arrival - the spacecraft had turned over several times after it landed relatively hard due to wind speed - Peake then smiled broadly and gave a thumbs up to TV crews.

Asked how he felt, he said: "Great, thanks. It was incredible - the best ride I've been on ever. I'm just truly elated. The smells of the Earth are so strong and it is just wonderful to feel the fresh air. I'm looking forward to seeing the family now."

Peake described his time on the International Space Station (ISS) as "life changing experience".

"It is overwhelming to be up there for six months and see everything and experience everything," he said.

"I am going to miss the view definitely."

In answer to another question, he said he would treat himself to a "pizza and cold beer".

One of his first actions after leaving the space capsule was to try to phone his family - but it wasn't clear if he managed to get through.

Peake is married to Rebecca, 42, who grew up in Perthshire,. They have two sons Thomas, seven, and, Oliver, four. The night before his return she tweeted: "Keep them safe please #Soyuz".

The journey went according to plan, ending with a "bullseye landing" on the targeted spot almost 300 miles south-west of the major city of Karaganda.

One Nasa astronaut, Doug Wheelock, has described the experience of a Soyuz descent as "like going over Niagara falls in a barrel, but the barrel is on fire".

The most critical point - known as the de-orbit burn - took place at 9.22am, during which the spacecraft brakes and drops out of orbit. If the burn is too short, it could have resulted in it skipping across the atmosphere - like a stone skimming over water - and flying out into space.

But if the burn was too long, the astronauts would have come in too steep and too fast and risked being incinerated.

The crew were flown to Karaganda by helicopter for a traditional welcoming ceremony involving gifts of bread, salt and Kazakh hats, but only the Russian cosmonaut Malenchenko was feeling well enough to appear.

The trio then went their separate ways, with Peake heading to the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany; Kopra going to Houston, Texas; and Malenchenko travelling to Star City, near Moscow.

Peake was the first British astronaut to be sent to the ISS by the European Space Agency (Esa) and the first person to fly to space under the UK banner since Helen Sharman in 1991.

In six months he packed in working up to 14 hours a day, participated in more than 250 experiments devised by scientists from around the world and ran the London Marathon on a treadmill - while keeping Planet Earth up to date through his Twitter account.

He presented Adele with a Brit award from space, appeared in a live video at Edinburgh's Hogmanay and attracted headlines after dialling a wrong number from space - asking a bemused pensioner “Hello, is this planet Earth?”

Peake said the highlight of his mission was the space walk he conducted with Kopra in January to repair electrical components on the outside of the space station.

He was originally scheduled to return at the beginning of June, but his homecoming was delayed when the launch of the replacement crew was pushed back.