NASA has spent so much time on building the station with solar panels but did not consider an add on which was a power unit, so match that logic with a deadline and you got something even better than what NASA started out with for the space station's power unit becoming a seperate unit entirely which also could be jetisoned away if necessary. So why not start planning the stages to bring that to the station as soon as possible and make the main power unit that while having a backup power unit the one which has failed and can be repaired over time. Maybe a guess, but something some female forgot to do was to sweep out the joint properly knowing this could slow down a successful flux (of power).
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Astronauts Install Solar Power Beam
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The space agency added a day to Discovery's mission so spacewalking astronauts could conduct a detailed inspection of the troublesome joint. That work is scheduled for Thursday.
To make room for that inspection, managers canceled a shuttle thermal tile repair demonstration that was scheduled for that spacewalk. The test was added to the mission after a piece of fuel-tank foam gouged Endeavour's belly on the last shuttle flight in August.
Any repairs to the malfunctioning gear would be put off until after Discovery departs.
Discovery is now scheduled to undock from the space station on Monday and return to Earth on Nov. 7.
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