Critical repairs have been carried out

The astronauts and cosmonauts will spend no more than a day together. Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the ISS, and start its journey back to Earth, on Saturday.

US astronaut William Shepherd and Russians Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalov have been in space for 36 days of their expected four month stay aboard the ISS.

Although the shuttle has been docked at the space complex since Saturday, the hatches have been sealed for safety reasons while work took place outside.

'Magnificent'

The Endeavour crew finished installing the space platform's new solar wings on Thursday.

Two astronauts carried out a tricky repair to the right solar wing in their third and final spacewalk.

Using just a hook and their gloved hands, Joe Tanner and Carlos Noriega tightened two slack cables.

The new ISS solar wings are the largest, most powerful and most expensive ever built for a spacecraft

17 tonnes 73 metres across Cost $600m Enough power for 30 homes on Earth One of the five brightest objects in night sky

The repair was needed to prevent damage to the blanket of solar cells coating the wing, during shuttle dockings and undockings.

"The whole crew was magnificent," said Nasa administrator Daniel Goldin in a congratulatory call to Endeavour's five astronauts.

Destiny

The two spacewalkers also installed a camera cable and a static-electricity monitor to the outside of the ISS. The monitor will be used to gain a better understanding of how to protect spacewalking astronauts from electric shocks.

Astronaut Carlos Noriega

Officials said the astronauts have now completed a number of tasks that needed to be carried out before the next mission to the ISS.

The space complex now has enough power to light all the modules, including the space laboratory Destiny which will be added in January.

While work was going on outside the ISS, the platform's Expedition 1 crew had tasks of their own.

Commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev had to deal with a malfunctioning air conditioner and a broken carbon dioxide removal unit.