NASA Probe Launch Successful, Though Not Without its Hiccups [VIDEO]

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) launched into space late Friday night, but not without its hiccups, the space agency reported.

NASA officials announced early Saturday morning that the probe designed to explore the Moon's atmosphere had separated from its ride, powered up and was communicating with ground controllers following a successful launch from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

However, according to the LADEE mission operations team located at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, the spacecraft shut its reaction wheels down during technical checkouts.

Necessary for positioning and stabilizing the spacecraft, the reaction wheels are a key component to the success of the spacecraft's mission.

Still, NASA officials say they are not worried.

"The LADEE spacecraft is working as it was designed to under these conditions -- there's no indication of anything wrong with the reaction wheels or spacecraft," Ames Director S. Pete Worden said in a statement. "The LADEE spacecraft is communicating and is very robust. The mission team has ample time to resolve this issue before the spacecraft reaches lunar orbit. We don't have to do anything in a rush."

Officials say the team is currently analyzing the situation, noting that while normal checkouts take a couple of days, the anomaly may add a few more to the process.

"This is not an unusual event in spacecraft," Worden said. "We plan in the next few days to complete spacecraft checkout."

LADEE is scheduled to reach the Moon in 30 days, at which point it will enter lunar orbit, gathering detailed information regarding the lunar atmosphere and conditions near the Moon's surface. From this data scientists hope not only to learn more about the formation of the Moon, but other space bodies such as large asteroids, Mercury and moons orbiting other planets, too.

"The moon's tenuous atmosphere may be more common in the solar system than we thought," John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington, said in a statement.