Christina Koch's Dog Welcomes Her Back From Artemis in Heartwarming Video

Everyone is thrilled that the Artemis II crew has returned to Earth safely. However, nobody is as happy as astronaut Christina Koch's dog. While the crew was welcomed back by their friends and family, a video has gone viral of Christina's dog greeting the astronaut upon her return.

The four astronauts (Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen) were on a 10-day mission to circle the moon. The mission marks the first lunar flyby with a crew to take place in over 50 years. While in space, the astronauts set the record for the furthest human beings have ever traveled. After a successful mission, the crew returned to Earth, landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on April 10, 2026.

Lucky for us, Christina posted a recording of her reunion with her dog Sadie on Instagram. The heartwarming clip shows the pup excitedly jumping onto her Human as the two greet each other. The next clip in the post shows the pair running on a beach together, wading into the water. Christina captioned the post, "I’m still pretty sure I was the happier side of this reunion. Sadie taught me everything I needed to know about being an emotional support animal. Didn’t expect that would come in handy."

In a world full of difficult news, the world rejoiced at Christina and Sadie's heartwarming story. The post's comments included, "Mom is back from space!!!" (Seriously, how many can say that sentence in their lifetime?!) Another commented, "Sadie has no idea how far you traveled to see her again. Love this so much."

A third person echoed what we're all thinking with, "You’ve traveled all the way to the moon, you see the Earth as a tiny dot, and then you come back and you’re on a beach with your dog. That is the immense gratitude of life."

Christina and her beautiful family live in Texas, where Christina obviously works for NASA and her husband, Robert "Rob" Koch, works as a geologist. The pair rescued Sadie, aka LBD or Little Brown Dog, around 2020. According to the astronaut, her family enjoys science, adventure, and farming. Well, at least two of those three were clear by her career choice.

Upon returning to Earth, the Artemis II crew shared what the mission meant to them. Per WRAL News, Christina said, "What we were told, really, through talking with the couple times with our families was that there was an impact … but that there was a positive impact that it was superseding any lines, any identities that people had."

The astronaut continued, "When my husband looked me in the eye on that video call, and said, ‘No, really. You’ve made a difference,’ it brought tears to my eyes, and I said, ‘That’s all we ever wanted.’"