Christina Koch’s Dog Sadie Reunites After Artemis II
Christina Koch came home after a long trip around the moon, and apparently her dog, Sadie, came to the same conclusion: this reunion deserved a full-on celebration.
On Sunday, mission specialist Christina Koch posted a video on Instagram showing how Sadie reacted when she returned from the record-setting 694,481-mile lunar flyby as part of Artemis II. In the clip, Sadie peeks through a front door window and wags her tail as soon as she realizes Koch is on the porch. When the door opens, the dog jumps for joy—then, as you’d expect, it turns into what Koch’s fans would probably call “a case of the zoomies.”
The moment plays out like a little domestic victory after the spaceflight headlines. After dashing back into the living room, Sadie grabs a toy and brings it to Koch as if to say, ok, we’re done with the reunion—now do the fun part again. There’s something quietly funny about how quickly the stakes reset from lunar distances to living-room fetch. You can almost hear the energy in the sound of paws on the floor—at least, that’s what it feels like from the video.
Koch’s post included a second video as well, one showing her and Sadie frolicking on a beach. “In order: 🌍 🤗 🐕🏖️,” Koch wrote in the caption. She added, “I’m still pretty sure I was the happier side of this reunion.” Koch also said Sadie taught her “everything I needed to know about being an emotional support animal,” and that she “didn’t expect that would come in handy.”
All of it lands after the Artemis II crew, which included Koch along with commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday. The splashdown capped the first voyage by humans to the moon in over half a century.
During a press conference in Houston, Koch leaned into the human side of the mission—especially the difference between a crew and a team. “A crew is … a group that is in it all the time, no matter what, that is stroking together every minute, with the same purpose, that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other, that gives grace, that holds accountable,” she said. “A crew has the same cares and the same needs, and a crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked.” Then she turned back to what it meant to see Earth from space.
“When we saw tiny Earth, people asked our crew what impressions we had. And honestly, what struck me wasn’t necessarily just Earth — it was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe,” Koch said. “I know I haven’t learned everything that this journey has yet to teach me, but there’s one new thing I know, and that is, Planet Earth, you are a crew.” And, yeah—maybe Sadie’s reunion video is its own small reminder of that same idea: you don’t really know what you need until you come back to the people, or the dog, waiting at the door. In her case, it was a literal welcome, bright and bouncy, right on schedule.
Beloved Teammate: Former NFL Player Chris Payton-Jones Dies At 30
Chevron links Venezuelan crude imports to easing U.S. gas prices
U.S. Wholesale Prices Jump 4% as Iran War Lifts Energy Costs