DISCOVERY SHUTTLE PUT INTO CIRCULAR ORBIT








KOROLYOV (Moscow region), March 9, 2001. /RIA Novosti correspondent Eduard Puziryov/. The U.S. space shuttle Discovery, which successfully took off from Cape Canaveral, was put into a circular orbit at the distance of 228.6 km from the Earth.


	According to the report of Carlos Fontanot, NASA representative in the Russian Mission Control Center, after extra engines ignited, the shuttle is to be put into an elliptic orbit and will head for the International Space Station. The Diuscovery is to dock with the ISS at 8.32 Moscow time on March 10.


	The shuttle was launched at 14.42 Moscow time. The Discovery will deliver to the International Space Station the second permanent crew composed of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachyov, the mission commander, and American astronauts James Voss and Susanne Helms.