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An US spacecraft has launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to try to perform a controlled landing on the Moon, BBC News reports.

It's aiming to become the first American mission in 51 years to complete a soft touch-down, and the first ever by a private company.

Astrobotic's robotic lander, called Peregrine, has been contracted by Nasa to carry five scientific instruments.

These will study the Moon's surface environment ahead of human missions later this decade.

Peregrine is part of a stampede of spacecraft that will attempt to put themselves on the lunar surface in 2024 - possibly as many as eight different projects, including from Japan and China.

Astrobotic's venture was sent on its way by a brand new rocket called Vulcan, which left its Florida pad at 02:18 EST (07:18 GMT). Fifty minutes later, after a flawless flight, the Pittsburgh-based company's craft was ejected on a path to the Moon.

It will take a few weeks to get itself into position to attempt the touch-down.

The planned 23 February descent will target a smooth lava plain on the Moon's near-side known as Sinus Viscositatis, or "Bay of Stickiness" - a reference to the type of volcanic material that may have built nearby hills.

Not since the last Apollo mission in 1972 has there been any US effort to place a spacecraft gently on the lunar surface - although US probes have been deliberately crashed into the Moon for one reason or another in the meantime.