File:KSC-05-S-00311 (ksc 120105 diller).webm

English: I work at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida. My job entails being a public affairs information specialist. Public affairs means I'm a public affairs officer and my job involves being a spokesman for the news media primarily, but also to the general public, as well. I've been a launch commentator since about 1983. It's really a twofold thing. Primarily, I look at it as a conduit from the launch control center in the firing room to the outside world of what is actually going on at a particular point in time, or segment of time, to get the shuttle or the rocket ready for launch, because it's a procedure for which the launch team is going through, and I'm trying to convey what they're doing and what the issues are as we go along. John Glenn...When he came for launch on the space shuttle, that was my first chance to meet a living legend and to find out what he was really like was quite a thrill, because I found that he has a love for this place like all the employees do here. And he never sloughed anybody off, even though he was on a deadline. And that, I think, is a great personal thrill for me, was, was to meet him, to talk with him, to find out that he was everything I'd hoped that someone of his stature would be. It's such a fulfilling area to go into because you're in something that advances us as a nation and as a race of people. So it's, it's a very good thing, a good career to pursue, and especially right now, because we're past the point where -- it's not just the government. It's, it's commercial interest and it's our international partners, and everybody has got growing roles now in space, but they're different than what they used to be. I, I think the most rewarding part is that when a launch has gone well and you feel that you've done a good job in that countdown, and then it lifts off and it actually gets into space and the whole thing has gone perfectly, then you have a very good feeling, knowing that you did a very good job in that and that you were part of that mission. That's the rewarding thing to me, it is that so many of these missions are historic, and for me, particularly, the planetary flights. And to have done one of the launch commentaries, to be able to look back and say, you know, how successful that was, and that I was, was part of that. I'm George Diller, a NASA launch commentator, and a public affairs information specialist at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.