Needham, Massachusetts - When formerly stranded astronaut Sunita Williams from her nine-month mission in space, her were more than ready to be reunited!
After spending nine months on the International Space Station, astronaut Sunita Williams received a particularly warm welcome from her dogs. © Collage: Screenshots/X/@astro_suni
59-year-old Suni spent the last nine months – although her stay was only supposed to last ten days.
So it's no wonder that her joy was all the greater when she was finally able to embrace her beloved dogs again!
A heartwarming on X shows the joyful meeting.
As soon as the dogs see their owner, they run around her, wagging their tails.
Smiling, Suni sweetly asks her four-legged friends, "Do you recognize me? Do you know who I am? Who's here?"
The chocolate-brown and blonde pets circle her excitedly, a clear sign of how much they've missed their owner!
"Best homecoming ever!" the astronaut wrote.
Sunita Williams spent the last nine months on the International Space Station (ISS) – although her stay was only supposed to last ten days. © National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Before their emotional homecoming, the astronaut and her colleague Butch Wilmore had been since June 2024.
Their mission was originally only scheduled to last ten days, but due to delays, the duo did not return to Earth .
In a Tuesday interview with , she talks about her unexpectedly long stay in space.
"My first thought was just, we have to pivot, right?" she said.
"If we're... gonna be up here 'til February, I was like, okay, let's make the best of it."
"We had planned [and] trained that we would be there for some part of a time, so we were ready to just jump into it and take on the tasks that were given to us," she added.
