Noriega, Carlos Ismael (1959– )

US astronaut. He flew on the Atlantis space shuttle mission in May 1997 that docked with the Russian space station Mir; and on the Endeavour mission in November 2000 to assemble the International Space Station, performing three space walks totalling 19 hours. Noriega was assigned to the US Space Command in 1990 and was selected as an astronaut in 1994. His assigned flight was postponed following the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003.