NASA astronaut Sunita Williams finally experienced the homecoming she'd been dreaming of for months — an emotional reunion with her beloved Labrador retrievers, Gunner and Gorby. The heartwarming moment captured on video shows the dogs' unbridled excitement as they rushed to greet their owner, tails wagging furiously after her unprecedented nine-month absence in space.

According to India TV, what began as an eight-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) unexpectedly stretched to 286 days when technical issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft left Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore stranded in orbit. During her extended stay, Williams often expressed how much she missed walking her dogs and longed to see her husband.

The viral reunion video, which Williams shared on X, shows both Labradors enthusiastically greeting her as she steps outside — one staying close for pets while the other darts away in excitement. The touching scene garnered thousands of reactions online, including a heart emoji from Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX partnered with NASA to bring Williams and Wilmore safely back to Earth on March 18.

Throughout their unexpectedly extended mission, the astronauts circled Earth 4,576 times, traveling approximately 121 million miles. Williams, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1998, had previously completed a 195-day mission to the ISS in 2006-2007 after training at Johnson Space Center and working with the Russian Space Agency.