Two defunct satellites narrowly miss collision

Two defunct satellites narrowly miss collision

The crossover took place 900km above the city of Pittsburgh.. Two decommissioned satellites sped past each other Wednesday after experts had warned they may collide at a combined speed of 33,000 miles (53,000 kilometers) an hour, sending thousands of pieces of debris hurtling through space.. The satellites - a pioneering international space telescope and an experimental US craft traveling in opposing orbits - "crossed paths without incident," a spokesman for US Space Command told AFP.. The crossover took place at 2339 GMT about 900 kilometers (560 miles) above the US city of Pittsburgh and came after experts had placed the risk of impact at between one and five percent, considered high in the space community.. Crashes involving large satellites at very high speeds (known as hypervelocity) are rare and dangerous, generating clouds of debris that endanger spacecraft around the planet.. The Infrared Astronomical Satellites (IRAS) space telescope was launched in 1983 as a joint project of NASA, Britain and the Netherlands, and its mission lasted only 10 months.. It weighs one tonne (ton), according to data provided by the European Space Agency and is about the size of a truck with measurements of around four meters by three meters by