(TNND) — Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch had a heartwarming reunion with her dog after returning from her historic 10-day mission in space.
Koch, who previously went viral in 2020 after spending a record-breaking 328 days aboard the International Space Station, shared the emotional moment on social media, showing her dog eagerly awaiting her arrival—barking, jumping, and grabbing a toy as she spotted her owner on the other side of the door.
She calls her Sadie Lou her “LBD,” or little brown dog.
“I’m still pretty sure I was the happier side of this reunion,” she wrote in the caption. “Sadie taught me everything I needed to know about being an emotional support animal. Didn’t expect that would come in handy.”
Koch’s reunion was one of several emotional homecomings following the mission, as the Artemis II crew was also greeted by loved ones after a successful splashdown—marking humanity’s first return from lunar distance in more than half a century.
Commander Reid Wiseman also shared a heartfelt moment, reuniting with his two daughters and their return to Houston the following day. Wiseman, a single father who lost his wife, Carroll, to cancer in 2020, was photographed still wearing elements of his blue flight suit and a cap.
“Mission complete,” he wrote on Instagram.
Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen reentered Earth’s atmosphere traveling at Mach 33—33 times the speed of sound—a blistering pace not seen since Apollo 17 concluded NASA’s initial era of lunar exploration in 1972. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, completed the descent on autopilot.
During the mission, they reached approximately 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13.
They also captured striking new “Earthset” images, showing Earth setting behind the Moon. At one point, the crew experienced a solar eclipse, as the Moon passed between their spacecraft and the Sun, briefly blocking its light from the Orion capsule.
Looking ahead, Artemis III will involve astronauts practicing docking maneuvers with a lunar landing system in Earth orbit. Artemis IV is expected to attempt a crewed landing near the Moon’s south pole in 2028.