Space station in danger of more space junk

For the second time in a week, the International Space Station is dealing floating piece of space junk, the Associated Press reports.

Space station astronauts had a close call last week with a piece of orbiting junk that is believed to be a part of an old motor, and on Monday, NASA said that a piece of a Russian satellite could come within about half a mile of the station early Tuesday.

The debris last week appeared by surprise, prompting the crew to take refuge in the Soyuz escape capsule as a precautionary measure. This time, there is enough advance warning that NASA won't have to decide until later today whether to fire rockets to move the shuttle out of danger.

If so, then the shuttle Discovery, which was launched toward the station on Sunday, will have to adjust its course slightly to prepare for a docking on Tuesday.

Mission managers said Sunday that despite shortening Discovery's stay by a day; they would still be able to complete 80 to 90 percent of the tasks they had planned.