CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Discoverys astronauts went to work inside rather than outside the International Space Station Thursday, ultimately pronouncing the outpost in shipshape for the early November arrival of its first full-time tenants.

"This is a beautiful place," shuttle skipper Brian Duffy said as his crew mates scurried about the 13-story station, stowing supplies and conducting systems tests in advance of the planned October 31 launch of the so-called Expedition One crew.

"Theyre just putting the finishing touches on so that when the Expedition One crew arrives, everything will be perfect for them," Duffy said. "I think theyre really going to be happy to get here."

U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd and two Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev now are scheduled to dock at the station November 2.

A lengthy shakedown cruise will follow as the trio prepares the outpost for the mid-January delivery of the U.S. lab module Destiny, which will serve as the scientific hub of the station.

Duffy and the shuttle crew spent the day testing the stations new dome-shaped gyroscopes, which are designed to reduce the amount of fuel needed to keep the outpost properly positioned in orbit. Four of the devices are housed within a 9-ton truss mounted atop the station by the Discovery crew last week.

The astronauts also finished up some interior wiring work, took air samples and hauled laptop computers, hard drives, tools and spare electrical equipment into the growing complex from crew-cabin storage lockers aboard Discovery.

They did, however, encounter a messy hiccup aboard their mother ship: A solid-waste compactor attached to the shuttles toilet jammed up, forcing pilot Pam Melroy to take on a bit of janitorial work with an assist from crew mate Jeff Wisoff.

"Its primarily a pilots responsibility to keep the shuttle running all the systems running smoothly so that the folks who are doing the [station] assembly tasks and so forth can do their jobs effectively," Melroy said.

"But this morning it took a little extra help, and I have to say that Jeff was the hero. The two of us had to break out some extra equipment and kind of get our hands a little dirty," she said with a laugh. "But we got it all fixed."

Running a bit behind schedule, the astronauts still took a rare spare moment to reflect on their mission, which is widely considered NASAs most ambitious station assembly flight to date.

In a matter of a week, the crew outfitted the outpost with a new shuttle docking port and the boxy Z-1 truss, the latter of which will serve as a temporary mounting platform for power-producing solar arrays to be launched aboard shuttle Endeavour November 30.

A quartet of spacewalks also were carried out on four consecutive days to wire up the stations newest additions and test rescue jetpacks.

Rookie spacewalker Bill McArthur who took part in two of the excursions said the forays were "just a truly extraordinary experience."

"It just exceeded my wildest dreams as to how thrilling and exciting it could be," McArthur told Lou Dobbs in a space-to-ground interview.

"And something I hadnt even imagined before is what a tremendously better view you get when youre outside [the shuttle]. And if you think about it, if you really want to see the outdoors, you walk outside your house," he said.

"You know, you may have lots of windows, but still, every time you look through a window you only see part of the outside," McArthur added.

"When youre outside [the shuttle], the view is simply breathtaking. I think Im going to spend a significant amount of time [after] landing just collecting my thoughts to try to articulate well what a thoroughly exciting and thrilling experience it was."

For first-time flier Melroy who is only the third woman to pilot a shuttle mission Discovery's thundering climb into orbit was particularly memorable.

"It was absolutely beautiful," she said.

"I mean, we took off close to sunset, and so we rose into the light and then we went back into night, and I was able to take a quick peak over my right shoulder and I saw the curve of the Earth as we rose up," Melroy added.

"Brian had been telling me that he got just a real sensation of speed. But for me, the sensation was altitude. It was incredible! We were just zooming up so fast, and I think that that was a really awesome experience," she said.

Another high point for Melroy: Three precision-piloting maneuvers during which she and Duffy fired on-board shuttle steering thrusters to haul the station into a slightly higher orbit.

"We had the nose tilted down a little bit, so we had a beautiful view of the Earth," Melroy said. "And I felt like I was in the highest, fastest airplane in the whole world, or out of it."

Melroy will be back at the controls Friday, undocking the shuttle from the station at the start of a two-day trip back to Earth.

Landing remains scheduled for 2:10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (18:10 GMT) Sunday here at Kennedy Space Center.