Carey was selected as an astronaut candidate by
NASA in April 1996. He reported to the NASA
Johnson Space Center in August 1996. After the completion of two years of training and evaluation, he was qualified for flight assignment as a pilot. Initially, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Spacecraft Systems/Operations Branch. In 2002, he served as the pilot of
Columbia on
STS-109, logging over 10 days in space. STS-109 (March 1–12, 2002). STS-109 was the fourth
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing mission. The crew of STS-109 successfully upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope, leaving it with a new power unit, a new camera and new solar arrays. HST servicing and upgrade was accomplished by four crew members during five
EVAs on five consecutive days. Carey also helped document the EVA activities with video and still images. STS-109 orbited the Earth 165 times, and covered 3.9 million miles in over 262 hours. Carey retired from NASA in October 2004. ==Personal life==