Astronaut Karen Nyberg on readjusting to life on Earth

"I honestly feel like I've accomplished the dream that I set out for," she said in her first interview since returning.

In the 15 years that the ISS has been operating, Nyberg's crew, including Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano, was only the second to land there on the same day that it left Earth.

During the mission, she manned the controls at crucial moments like the capture of the Japanese HTV cargo vehicle and its connection to the ISS.

Nyberg and her crewmates returned to Earth in a Russian space capsule on Nov. 18, carrying the Olympic torch with them as they touched down in Kazakhstan.

Nyberg's first order of business upon returning to the U.S. was reuniting with her preschool-age son, Jack. He ran into her arms with a big smile on his face, she said, and then just stared at her for awhile, as if wondering if this was really her, in real life, rather than on a computer screen.

Calling herself an average woman with a typical American upbringing, she says she's more intimidated by a TV interview than she is by blast-off.