A company in California that tracks low earth orbit satellites and debris is warning of a potential collision that could happen Wednesday evening at 6:39 p.m., 560 miles over Pittsburgh.
Information showed overlapping tracks between a decommissioned space telescope and an experimental government payload.
The older satellite was launched in 1967 by the U.S. military is quite small and weighs only 10 pounds, but is reported to be attached to a larger satellite, only recently declassified.
Launched in 1983, the larger satellite is the first infrared telescope in orbit. Called IRAS, it is credited with leading to the discoveries of six new comets, the core of the Milky Way galaxy and a deeper understanding of the stars Vega and Fomalhaut.