After more than nine months in space, NASA astronaut Suni Williams touched down on Earth March 18, reuniting with her friends, family, and fuzzy companions.
On Tuesday, the Needham native posted a heartwarming video of her reunion with her dogs, Rotor and Gunner, to social media, garnering more than 434,000 views.
“Best homecoming ever!” Williams wrote.
The video begins as Williams steps onto her family’s front lawn. She crouches down to greet the dogs, who were tapping their paws and wagging their tails with excitement.
Williams pets the dogs for a moment as they jump up and down.
Then Gunner stops to wander around the front yard, which Williams jokingly describes as “giving [her] the cold shoulder.”
“My little fat boys,” Williams says affectionately.
On social media, people were quickly drawn to the touching reunion.
“What’s the number one thing that NASA astronaut Suni Williams missed during her 9-month stint in outer space? Well, in addition to her family and fresh salad — it was her dogs, Rotor and Gunner!” the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution posted on Instagram.
Thanks to WHOI, Williams was not without a version of Rotor and Gunner during her extended stay in space.
The group created 3D printed models of Rotor and Gunner and sent them to the International Space Station in time for Christmas.
“To make [her] time aboard the International Space Station a little more homey, we had the whizzes at [Autonomous Vehicles and Sensor Technologies] 3D-print these models of her dogs!" the group wrote.
During a news conference Monday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore spoke about their time on the space station.
“I wanted to hug my husband and hug my dogs,” Williams said.
Now that Williams has been reunited with her husband and dogs, she said she plans on returning to New England soon.
“I think that’s probably appropriate for when it gets hot and humid here [in Texas] in the summer,” Williams said. “Take a little reprieve up there.”
Sarah Mesdjian can be reached at sarah.mesdjian@globe.com. Follow her on X @sarahs_journal.