People might wonder why attitude control is important. First and foremost: power. Solar power requires that the solar arrays be directed toward the sun. Losing attitude control means that they'll lose efficiency and thus power. This isn't a big deal in the short run, but long term is a big deal. Surely they'll have this fixed before that comes into play.<p>Aside from that, there's a lot of other smaller factors such as being able to orient the station to boost orbit every so often. Even though they're in Low Earth Orbit, there is a <i>just</i> enough atmosphere to cause the orbit to decay slightly over time, and this has to be compensated for by boosting the orbit. No attitude control = no orienting thrusters.<p>Obligatory Scott Manley video that's way better than what I just said:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDp8jbP_22c" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDp8jbP_22c</a>