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A spacecraft about the size of a British phonebox was launched on Thursday morning and is heading for the Moon.

If the mission is successful, it will be the first privately-owned lander to touch down on the lunar surface.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was used to launch the craft - named Odysseus - from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It is hoped the lander will reach the Moon's south pole on 22 February.

The Texan-based company, called Intuitive Machines, has been hired by US government space agency Nasa to carry six scientific instruments onboard that will help study the Moon's surface and measure radio waves.

Alongside the instruments, there are also 125 tiny sculptures by the artist Jeff Koons on board, as well as a chip that aims to create a record of human knowledge on the Moon.

If Thursday's launch and landing all goes well, it could be the first American mission in 51 years to complete a soft touchdown on the Moon.

The mission is not manned, meaning there are no astronauts on board.

Nasa's Artemis II mission to take humans back to the moon has been delayed until at least 2026.

Around eight minutes into the launch, the first stage of the rocket, which is mostly the boosters with propulsion fuel, fell away and landed back on Earth as planned.

The Falcon 9 rocket is part of SpaceX's mission to make space travel more sustainable, by reusing the same rockets for multiple launches.

This was the booster's 18th successful launch and landing.