Ansari, 40, told reporters she has no regrets at a press conference broadcast from the International Space Station, responding to a reporter's question about the more than 20 million dollars she reportedly paid for the eight-day space tour.

"I am having a wonderful time here. It's been more than what I expected, and I am enjoying every single second of it. The entire experience has been wonderful up here," she said.

"But the favourite moment, as I suspected, was the moment I was able to see the Earth for the first time and see it as so beautiful and peaceful in the dark background, and it was a moment I will never forget."

Ansari, who lived in Iran until the age of 16, is only the fourth space tourist in history, but the first woman to take the extraordinary voyage.

She said she had experienced some spacesickness during the trip, however: "I did suffer a lot of the usual symptoms of being in orbit, like back pain, headache and motion sickness," she said.