we expect they ll be less, giving us to chance to react if that determines to be the case. we also have critical-flight hardware that s in facilities that can withstand higher winds any way, just a good example, would be the gozar weather satellite, which we re going to be launching in november, that s in a facility that s got winds that can withstand 130-miles-an-hour, so the standards for hurricaine rideout have improved over time t pays off if you have a threat from a storm like this one. the weather satellite was specifically what i was talking about and you confirmed it. thank you, george diller, nasa spokesperson. coming up, much more on hurricane matthew, on its way to the florida coast, millions of people bracing what they re saying could be the storm of the century.
those winds, with the surge, and the rain? alison? yeah. chris, i don t know if you can see the split screen but our correspondent at our affiliate had to take cover because the winds were battering her, i believe, so much. she could barely hang on to the pillar that was on part of the building there. so we can see how bad it is there in daytona beach, florida. joining us now on the phone is george diller, a nasa spokesperson and joins us live from the kennedy space center in cape canaveral. good morning, george, where do we find you hunkered down at the moment? i m in the emergency operations center at cape canaveral and that s where we ve been following this storm all night and it looks like it s just about here. it s maybe just offshore from port canaveral and cocoa beach. the forecast we ve got shows that it s going to be within 26 miles offshore of kennedy space center but that s better than the direct hit we were
reporter: every good highlight needs the perfect call. everybody wants to knkn what your liftoff line is. liftoff for the final launch of endeavour. expanding our knowledge, expanding our lives in space. i gótda of it. i don t know if i can throw a few ideas your way. i ll take any suggestions i can get. here we go! to infinity and beyond! that s been taken. somebody wants me to say that s all, folks. reporter: with the final deadline approaching in the symbiotic relationship between george and the clock, time is the enemy. experience for george and also l the hundreds of thousands of others who are gathered there at the kennedy space center, cape canaveral. you re looking at live pictures of shuttle atlantis. they have ju begun the fueling process of the liquid nitrogen, the liquid oxygen. that will go on for a few hours. then they ll cross their fingers and hope that the weather holds. schedule time 11:26 a.m. eastern.
now just like the shuttle program itself, he s retiring. wjxx reporter lewis turner has the story. reporter: george diller is just as much a part of the shuttle program as the countdown clock. this clock has actually been declared a historical artifact. reporter: unlike the clock, you won t recognize his face. t minus two minutes and counting. reporter: that s just flashing lights until george takes over. four, three, two zero. before at i had actually been a reporter, radio reporter from the tampa bay aa. covered the space program over here for about five years. and really fell in love with nasa and the space program. reporter: the job opened up for diller in 1978. it was ten years later that he did his first-ever shuttle play by play. there s a lot of concentration. you don t have enough time to be nervous about it. t minus 6.6 seconds, the main engines ignite. here i m doing the last one which will certainly be a highlight.
and lift-off. the final lift-off of atlantis on the shoulders of the space shuttle america will continue the dream. george diller providing the official countdown and his custom lift-off line for the space program final shuttle launch. as nasa public relations commentator he provides most of the launches. he started at nasa back in 1979. i just never could have imagined that at the end of the shuttle program that i would be in the firing with the launch team counting daw down the last launch. i never could have imagined it would go that way. shepard: he said the launches were never about him and always about the program itself. he added that while the program is over the future for nasa remains bright. well, this is word two al-qaeda affiliates may be trying to join forces. a radical american cleric in