Seven astronauts raced to the international space station aboard space shuttle Discovery on Monday, while NASA debated whether the orbiting outpost will need to move aside to dodge a piece of space junk.
The shuttle launch Sunday followed five delays that caused Discovery’s mission to be shortened by a day and canceled a planned spacewalk.
Space station astronauts had a close call last week with a piece of orbiting junk that passed nearby, and NASA said Monday that a piece of a Russian satellite could come within about half a mile of the station early Tuesday.
NASA will decide later Monday whether to fire the space station’s engines to nudge the complex out of the path of the debris.
