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For nearly five decades, Dr. Scolese has shaped U.S. leadership in space across civil, military, and intelligence domains. He began his government career in 1978 as a United States Naval Officer, supporting Naval Nuclear Propulsion Programs for the U.S. Navy and the Department of Energy. Selected by Admiral Hyman Rickover to serve at Naval Reactors, he worked on the development of advanced instrumentation, instrument systems, and multi-processor systems for the Navy and the Department of Energy while assigned to Naval Sea Systems Command. Dr. Scolese served on active duty until 1983.
Following a period of service working in government and industry, Dr. Scolese joined NASA, where he was assigned to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. He went on to hold multiple senior leadership roles at NASA, including chief engineer, associate administrator, acting administrator, and director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. From guiding NASA through the retirement of the Space Shuttle and early planning for what became the Artemis Program, to overseeing milestone achievements at Goddard including the buildout of the James Webb Space Telescope, his impact on the nation’s civil space program has been profound and enduring. He currently serves as director of the NRO, having been appointed by and serving under three presidential administrations.
Since becoming director of the NRO in 2019, Dr. Scolese has led one of the most transformative eras in the agency’s history, championing a proliferated satellite architecture, accelerating intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data delivery, and strengthening national security space capabilities. Many of these contributions may never be publicly known, yet they remain vital to the nation.
Please join us in celebrating Hon. Christopher J. Scolese’s incredible legacy and his profound impact on the future of space exploration.
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