Components...
Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!
The space shuttle Discovery has uncoupled from the International Space Station and is heading back to Earth, after an eventful 11 day stay in orbit. The shuttle's journey home will take two days, and it is scheduled to land back at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday afternoon. The crew of Discovery spent time this …
It is actually quite possible that damage to one component could affect any of the other components of the station. In space you have to worry a lot about resonance and momentum causing torques on manuevers, and a component that doesn't behave as designed could potentially cause damaging vibrations through out the structure.
I don't know if that is the case, but I know that I wouldn't exactly want to orbit in a space station with anything unpredictable going on.