Spacecraft returns to Earth after rescue mission for ageing Nasa telescope fails

Series of in-flight problems meant Link, a ‘commercial space robot’, could not salvage the Nasa observatory A spacecraft that was launched in July on a mission to rescue a decaying Nasa space observatory plunged back to Earth on Friday, concluding a failed mission that will be followed by the telescope’s own demise in several weeks’ time.

Link, billed as “America’s first commercial space robot”, lifted off on 3 July from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific islands with the…