A brief tracking failure led to fears that the satellite meant to host NASA’s new mission to better understand space weather had been lost, according to SpaceFlightNow. Though the European Ariane 5 rocket lifted off uneventfully, none of the customers with satellites on the rocket could reach their probes for some time.

The satellites are in orbit and have communicated with their control centers, Arianespace announced. But it’s not clear yet what orbits they’re in. If they’re in the wrong spots, these satellites may not be able to do their jobs — though it’s possible they could course-correct.

There was an “anomaly” on the launch, said Arianespace chief executive Stephane Israel, according to SpaceFlightNow. Everything was normal until a few seconds after the ignition of the second stage. At that point, no one was in contact with the rocket. It turns out that a tracking station in Brazil lost touch with it — and for a while, no one knew its status or the status of the craft aboard it.

Arianespace, the maker of the rocket, is also scheduled to launch the James Webb Space Telescope in 2019. The rocket today was carrying an instrument called GOLD, hosted by SES-14, a satellite controlled by Luxembourg-based operator SES. It is the first NASA mission that consisted of an instrument that lived on a commercial satellite.

Update January 25th, 9:30PM ET: This post has been updated. After a brief silence, the satellites regained contact with their control centers.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/25/16934528/arianespace-ariane-anomaly-second-stage-nasa-gold-mission-space-weather