NASA announced on Monday that they were determining what to do regarding the potential threat to the International Space Station presented by a piece of an old Soviet-era satellite spinning through space.

According to recent developments, Mission Control assured the crew on the ISS that the debris would remain at a safe distance from the space station, the Associated Press reported. Earlier in the day, experts warned the piece of junk might come within a half-mile of the outpost, and that the station might need to steer away.

As the drifting piece believed to be from the Soviet-era Kosmos 1275 satellite is expected to come within just half of a mile of the space station on Tuesday, NASA was considering the possibility of changing the course of the International Space Station and Discovery, which launched on Sunday after numerous postponements.

The news comes less than one week after the three astronauts aboard the space station were forced to board an emergency capsule for about 10 minutes when another piece of debris passed about 4.5 kilometers from the orbiting space station.

According to a NASA spokesman, Bill Jeffs, the agency had discovered last week's piece of debris too late to maneuver the space station away from its path. This time, however, there is time to maneuver the orbiter if calculations made by NASA scientists determine that moving the space station is necessary. Discovery space shuttle is scheduled to make the docking tomorrow at 5:13 p.m. Eastern.