Sep 07, 2013 10:18 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

After a successful launch late Friday night, NASA confirmed early Saturday the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) separated from its rocket and has communicated to ground control.

According to a NASA press release, LADEE will arrive and begin orbiting the moon in 30 days. NASA also wanted to put a stop to any worries regarding a slight malfunction in the separation of the rocket and the spacecraft.

LADEE is equipped with wheels to stabilize and orient the spacecraft, but they were spinning too fast and the computer on the craft automatically shut them down. S. Peter Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said he was confident the issue will be straightened out quickly.

"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," he said in the release. "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."

The LADEE spacecraft was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia Friday night at a NASA facility and will be managed from Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

The craft has been tasked with gathering data on odd glowing lunar dust reported by Apollo astronauts 40 years ago, as well as the mysterious atmosphere surround the moon. During the Apollo 17 mission, astronauts reported seeing a strange glowing phenomenon around the moon just before sunrise. The sight was so strange because the airless atmosphere is not capable of reflecting sunlight.

NASA scientists took a special interest in the dust because the astronauts said it would stick to their boots and gloves and appeared to them similar to "spent gunpowder" and talcum powder.

Scientists have not been able to explain why it appears to loft off the surface of the moon, but they have theorized it is electrically charged somehow. LADEE's mission will hopefully help scientists explain another lunar mystery.

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