It’s taken far too long, and cost far more than it’s worth, but it’s definitely progress.

We used to have a concept back in the eighties at Rockwell called Extended-Duration Orbiter (EDO) in which we’d pack extra fuel cells in the payload bay to extend the mission length of a Shuttle flight, because electrical power (provided by fuel cells, which had finite propellants) was the initial tallest pole in the tent to allowing longer missions.

Now that the station finally has surplus power with the last installation of solar panels, it can provide some to the Shuttle to allow an extended stay there.