(TNND) \u2014 Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch had a heartwarming reunion with her dog after returning from her historic 10-day mission in space.<\/p>\n
Koch, who previously went viral in 2020<\/a> 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\u2014barking, jumping, and grabbing a toy as she spotted her owner on the other side of the door.<\/p>\n She calls her Sadie Lou her \u201cLBD,\u201d or little brown dog.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m 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\u2019t expect that would come in handy.”<\/p>\n Koch\u2019s 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<\/a>\u2014marking humanity\u2019s first return from lunar distance in more than half a century.<\/p>\n 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 <\/a>in 2020, was photographed still wearing elements of his blue flight suit and a cap.<\/p>\n “Mission complete,” he wrote on Instagram. <\/p>\n Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Koch, and Canada\u2019s Jeremy Hansen reentered Earth\u2019s atmosphere traveling at Mach 33\u201433 times the speed of sound\u2014a blistering pace not seen since Apollo 17 concluded NASA\u2019s initial era of lunar exploration in 1972. Their Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, completed the descent on autopilot.<\/p>\n During the mission, they reached approximately 252,756 miles from Earth<\/a>, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13.<\/p>\n