1st US commercial moon landing mission in jeopardy after 'critical' fuel leak

The first commercial moon landing may be in jeopardy after the company's space craft experienced a "critical" fuel leak on Monday.

A company's attempt to make the first commercial moon landing is in jeopardy after the spacecraft developed a "critical" fuel leak on Monday.

The Peregrine lunar lander, built by Astrobotic, launched with the Vulcan rocket from the United Launch Alliance -- a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing -- at 2:18 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Peregrine separated from the rocket about an hour later and was making its journey to the moon, which was set to take place on Feb. 23 and would have been the first U.S. soft moon landing mission in more than 50 years.

However, several hours in, Astrobotic said the lunar lander was experiencing a "propulsion anomaly" that was preventing it from orienting the solar panels toward the sun so it could collect power to operate. This was discovered to be a fuel leak.