Carlos I. Noriega

Peruvian-American NASA employee, a former NASA astronaut and a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.

STS-84 (15–24 May 1997) was NASA's sixth Space Shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. During this 9-day mission the crew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis conducted a number of secondary experiments, and transferred nearly 4 tons of supplies and experiment equipment between Atlantis and the Mir station. During STS-84 Noriega logged a total of 221 hours and 20 minutes in space traveling 3.6 million miles in 144 orbits of the Earth.

STS-97 Endeavour (30 November to 11 December 2000) was the fifth Space Shuttle mission dedicated to the assembly of the International Space Station. While docked to the Station, the crew installed the first set of U.S. solar arrays, performed three space walks, in addition to delivering supplies and equipment to the station’s first resident crew. Mission duration was 10 days, 19 hours, 57 minutes, and traveled 4.47 million miles.