George Diller, the NASA Public Affairs information specialist who famously called the shuttle program's return to flight in 2005, retired last week.

SARASOTA George Diller, the longest-serving NASA launch commentator and a former Sarasota resident who famously called the space shuttle program's return to flight in 2005, has retired after 37 years.

Diller rotated as the voice of the space shuttle program and served as the launch commentator for NASA Television. He gave commentary for the final space shuttle mission with Atlantis in 2011; the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990; probes launched to the moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Pluto; and the Atlas V rocket that carried the Mars Laboratory and Curiosity rover.

The native Floridian grew up in Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Clearwater and holds degrees in communications and business administration from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Prior to working at NASA he spent 11 years in radio broadcasting at stations in Clearwater, Tampa, and Orlando.

In a video tribute to Diller, Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana noted that Diller had been doing his job for 33 years with NASA and four years as a contractor, including the last shuttle flight.

"We're really going to miss hearing your golden voice on console during launch," Cabana said.

Diller said it was amazing for him to work with so many different spacecraft and payloads and destinations, some of them interplanetary.

"To be five feet from something that is going to another planet, to me that's really exciting," Diller said.

Diller's expertise wasn't solely spacecraft and launches. He was was the liaison to the NASA-KSC Weather Office, the U.S. Air Force 45th Weather Squadron, and the National Weather Service.

The man known for his smooth and calm delivery would wait out hurricanes as part of NASA's Rideout Team, and was a source for space journalists, according to NASA.

"When you're new to the press site, it's overwhelming," veteran space journalist Jim Banke explained in a NASA feature about Diller. "There's so much to learn, so many people to meet figuring out who to call, who to ask. He knew his stuff. He still knows his stuff."

NASA staff said Diller was headed for a well-deserved vacation a day after his retirement and was unavailable for comment.

Diller joked with Cabana during his last call that he wouldlikely miss the work before too long and tune in to hear the launches wherever his retirement takes him.

"You can take the boy out of the launch, but you can't take the launch out of the boy," Diller said. "That's probably the way I'm going to be after I retire."

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Former Sarasota resident and 'the voice' of NASA retires - Sarasota Herald-Tribune