During their six-hour-29-minute spacewalk ending at 2254 GMT, mission specialists Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson activated a power generator on a new truss segment on the ISS that tracks the Sun, and successfully completing all tasks assigned to them.

The truss segment, delivered by the Atlantis and installed on the ISS last Monday, bears two solar panels extending 73 meters (240 feet) that constantly face the Sun generating about 20 kilowatts of electricity for the station.

The two astronauts also installed a computer network cable onto the US-made Unity module, removed a Global Positioning System Antenna and installed a piece of debris shielding on the Destiny laboratory.

The shuttle is due to return to Earth on Thursday, after a 13-day mission that was extended two days so astronauts could fix an insulating blanket on the spaceship's exterior that was damaged during launch.

NASA managers had feared that the loose blanket could expose the ship to excess heating during re-entry through the atmosphere.

During an eight-hour space walk on Friday, astronaut Danny Olivas used surgical staples to pin down a corner of the heat blanket, which had come loose as the shuttle reached escape velocity from the Kennedy Space Center on June 8.

NASA engineers stressed that the hand-size opening posed no threat to the crew, unlike the broken tile that caused the Columbia to break up on re-entry in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board.

That disaster was caused by breaks in the shuttle's ceramic heat shield due to foam insulation peeling off its fuel tank and striking a wing during the launch.

On Friday, the ISS crew also fixed two main computers aboard the ISS after an unprecedented 48-hour systems breakdown. Astronauts used a jumper cable to bypass a faulty power switch.

With the computers off line, the station's gyroscopes kept the orbiting laboratory on an even keel, with the propulsion system of the docked shuttle Atlantis providing backup, NASA said.

NASA said there was only "an extremely remote chance" the computer problems could force the shuttle and ISS crews to abandon the station.

NASA reported the computers functioning normally on Sunday, adding that on Monday they would test computer-controlled propulsion motors that maneuver the ISS in its orbit, which will have to be lowered slightly from its 350 kilometers (217 miles) above Earth.

If the test goes well, NASA said, Atlantis can proceed to undock from the ISS on Tuesday.

Russia may send its cargo vessel Progress to the ISS earlier, on July 23 instead of its planned August launch, to deliver spare parts for the computers, an official said.

On Saturday, ISS engineer Sunita Williams of the United States set a record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman, surpassing the 188-day and four-hour mark set by her compatriot Shannon Lucid in 1996.

Asked by reporters in a video conference how she celebrated the milestone, Williams said she was too busy. "I think I had a couple of wrenches in my hand and that's pretty much how I celebrated," she said.

It was not the first record set by Williams, a former US Navy test pilot who fought in the 1991 Gulf War. She began her space journey December 10 and is due to return to Earth on Thursday with the Atlantis crew.

Earlier this year, she logged 29 hours and 17 minutes in four space walks, eclipsing the record held by astronaut Kathryn Thornton for most space-walk time by a woman.

And in April, she became the first astronaut to run a marathon in orbit -- on a treadmill, finishing it in four hours and 24 minutes.

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