Scientists are in a race against time to save the first American spacecraft to attempt a Moon landing in 50 years from failure as its team admitted it was just hours away from an “uncontrollable tumble”.

Peregrine, which was scheduled to land on the Moon in late February, has under two days of power left after a “propulsion anomaly” caused an issue to develop with its solar panels.

Engineers are now racing to steer the lander “as close to lunar distance” as possible before they lose control of it.

Technical issues developed soon after Peregrine separated from its launch rocket. A leak in its propulsion system meant the lander was struggling to keep its solar panels pointing towards the Sun.

Its thrusters, of which the spacecraft has 12 to control its orientation, are being used to maintain its alignment, but are now rapidly burning through the fuel needed for the mission ahead – meaning the craft now has just 40 hours left.

Astrobotic, the company behind the mission, said: “At 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.”

Peregrine was due to land on the Moon’s northern hemisphere on Feb 23, carrying the remains of former US presidents including John F Kennedy, George Washington, and Dwight Eisenhower.

It also has the remains of several Star Trek cast members and the remains of dozens of people, whose families paid thousands of dollars for a “permanent memorial on a distant, but constantly viewable world”.

The 1.2 ton lander launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Monday, in the first American spacecraft to attempt a Moon landing since the final Apollo in 1972.

It was scheduled to hold its orbit before landing on a mid-latitude region of the Moon called Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness.

Astrobotic said in a statement: “An ongoing propellant leak is causing the spacecraft’s attitude control system (ACS) thrusters to operate well beyond their expected service life cycles to keep the lander from an uncontrollable tumble.

“If the thrusters can continue to operate, we believe the spacecraft could continue in a stable sun-pointing state for approximately 40 more hours, based on current fuel consumption.”

The mission, partly backed by Nasa, is the result of the US turning to the private sector to carry out space missions for a fraction of the cost.

Astrobotic Technology developed Peregrine under a $108 million (£84.8 million) contract with the space agency.

Nasa had purchased capacity on the lander for five instruments to study the lunar surface environment ahead of sending astronauts there later this decade, in a further blow to US space ambitions.

To date, only the US, China, the former Soviet Union and most recently India, have performed a soft landing on the Moon in what has become a new “space race” among the superpowers.

In August, Russia’s Luna-25 craft crash-landed before it could reach the Moon’s south pole, in a blow to the prestige of the Roscosmos space agency.