George Diller is a retired

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

specialist who worked in the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Public Affairs Office (PAO) at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

. He provided public announcements and commentary before and during launches from the Kennedy Space Center, including the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

and uncrewed spacecraft such as the

Mars rover A Mars rover is a remote-controlled motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place them ...

s '' Spirit'' and ''

Opportunity Opportunity may refer to: Places * Opportunity, Montana, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Nebraska, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Washington, a former census-designated place, United States * ...

'', and was known as "The Voice of Kennedy Space Center". Diller provided launch commentary from the launch of

STS-28 STS-28 was the 30th NASA Space Shuttle program, Space Shuttle mission, the fourth shuttle mission dedicated to United States Department of Defense (DoD) purposes, and the eighth flight of Space Shuttle Columbia, Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The ...

through

STS-135 STS-135 ( ISS assembly flight ULF7) was the 135th and final mission of the American Space Shuttle program. It used the orbiter '' Atlantis'' and hardware originally processed for the STS-335 contingency mission, which was not flown. STS-135 ...

the final launch of the program. He is also known for his "liftoff line" he gave as the Space Shuttle and other vehicles lifted off the pad. In addition to shuttle missions, Diller served as commentator during the roll-out, launch delays, and successful launch of

Ares I-X Ares I-X was the first-stage prototype and design concept demonstrator of Ares I, a launch system for human spaceflight developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Ares I-X was successfully launched on October 28, 200 ...

in October 2009 as well as planetary missions such as ''

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods * ''Juno'' (film), the 2007 film Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, a character in the book ''Juno of ...

'',

GRAIL The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity (rover), Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale (crater), Gale Crater on Augus ...

, and

MAVEN MAVEN is a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of that planet's atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water. The name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution" w ...

. Diller lists among his favorite moments, the launch of the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

aboard

STS-31 STS-31 was the 35th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the tenth flight of the Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The primary purpose of this mission was the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) into low Earth orbit. ''Discovery ...

, ''

Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the Magellan expedition, 1519–22 Spanish expedition to the East Indies. During this expedition, he also discovered t ...

'' and ''

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

'' probes which he had much involvement in, and his first shuttle launch commentary for the

STS-27 STS-27 was the 27th NASA Space Shuttle program, Space Shuttle mission, and the third flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis, Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. Launching on December 2, 1988, on a four-day mission, it was the second shuttle flight after the ...

mission. Diller's final launch commentary was for the

Cygnus CRS OA-7 OA-7, previously known as Orbital-7, is the eighth flight of the Orbital ATK uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its seventh flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. The m ...

mission on April 18, 2017. After the launch, Diller interviewed KSC Director and former astronaut

Bob Cabana Robert Donald Cabana (born January 23, 1949) is a former Associate Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and retired NASA NASA Astronaut Corps#Members, astronaut, having flown on four Space Shuttle flights. He s ...

for the

NASA TV NASA TV (originally NASA Select) was the television service of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It was broadcast by satellite television, satellite with a simulcast over the Internet. Local cable television provid ...

feed, who pointed out that the launch was Diller's last. Diller appeared as himself in mission control scenes in the 2015 comedy action made-for-television movie '' Sharknado 3''.

Background

Diller is a native Floridian, having grown up in

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Ba ...

and Clearwater. He graduated from the University of South Florida, Tampa campus first in 1972 and then later in 1977. He has lived in Titusville since October 1978. He worked for 11 years in

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...

at stations in Clearwater,

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

and

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

, and had among his responsibilities covering the Kennedy Space Center as a reporter.NASA - George H. Diller, NASA Public Affairs Information Specialist
/ref>

References

Sources

External links

*
Montage of George Diller Space Shuttle launch commentary
NASA people Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Sarasota, Florida People from Clearwater, Florida People from Titusville, Florida {{US-gov-bio-stub

Background

See also

References

Sources

External links