The first moon lander to launch from the US in half a century has "no chance" of making a successful landing on the lunar surface because of a fuel leak, its operators have announced.
Peregrine 1, which aimed to become the first commercial space probe to make a soft landing on the moon, suffered a "critical loss of propellant" hours after lift-off on Monday.
The problem was caused by an "anomaly" in the propulsion system, according to Astrobotic Technology, the US company behind the project.
In its latest update released on Tuesday, the company confirmed that the spacecraft had "unfortunately no chance of a soft landing on the moon".
The updated mission was to gather data from Peregrine 1 that may be useful for a future lunar landing trip, Astrobotic added.
In a statement the Pittsburgh-based company said its thrusters "could likely only operate for 40 more hours at most".
Astrobotic Technology added: "This time, the goal is to get Peregrine as close to lunar distance as we can before it loses the ability to maintain its sun-pointing position and subsequently loses power."
The lander, which is carrying Nasa scientific equipment, launched on the Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, marking the first use of the powerful new rocket built by United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed venture.
Peregrine was scheduled to land on the moon on February 23, when it would have begun to gather data about the lunar surface to help research for planned future human missions.
Responding to reports of the lander’s failure, Nasa said it was working with Astrobotic Technology to identify the root cause of the propulsion problem, adding that "space is hard".
