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2023 Space Symposium

Dr. Chris Scolese, NRO director

April 18, 2023

Remarks as prepared for delivery

INTRODUCTION

Good morning. Thank you, Tom, for that introduction [introduced by Tom Durame of 

Space Foundation].

It’s great to be back here at Space Symposium, great to be back in Colorado Springs. 

I’m honored to represent the dedicated employees of the National Reconnaissance 

Office. As you saw in the opening video, we’re an agency of big thinkers and big ideas. 

The men and women of the NRO are smart and creative and they’re constantly finding 

new, innovative ways to make those big ideas happen. 

Innovation is part of our DNA, part of our 62-year legacy. We’ve long talked about what 

the future could look like. In fact, it’s already here. We’re building the most proliferated

and diversified overhead ISR architecture of the future today. 

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE 

At the NRO, we’re advancing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance beyond 

what was thought possible. We’re putting new capabilities on orbit, on the ground, and 

everywhere in between. We’re integrating automation and machine learning into 

everything we do. 

We’re making major investments that enable us to deliver critical information to the 

policymakers, the intelligence analysts, the warfighters, and other users who need this 

information when seconds count. 

We’re proliferating our architecture – building the largest and most capable, diverse, 

and resilient overhead constellation in our history. Within the next decade we expect to 

quadruple the number of satellites we currently have on orbit. These satellites – large 

and small, in multiple orbits – will deliver an order of magnitude more signals and 

images as we’re getting now, and will be composed of a mix of government and 

commercial systems.

We’re building resilience throughout our enterprise – in space, ground, cyber, our 

workforce, supply chains, even our launches. 
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Last year we launched five missions into orbit, each of them designed to meet our 

diverse needs – different launch partners, different locations – even different continents 

– different rocket types, and different on-orbit capabilities. And two took off in less than 

one month from New Zealand. 

We’re strengthening relationships with international partners as well as those within the 

Intelligence Community and the DoD – getting them the intelligence they need, when 

they need it. And we’re coming up with more strategic and creative ways to work with 

industry so we can put more capability into space and deliver that intelligence even

faster. 

Today, I’m happy to announce the fourth focus area under our Strategic Commercial 

Enhancements Broad Agency Announcement program – innovative Commercial 

Electro-Optical Capabilities. The commercial EO market continues to expand with new 

capabilities and new providers, and we want to be able to assess and use these 

capabilities to support our mission. We expect the RFP this fall, and this acquisition will 

be open to both U.S. companies and foreign-owned companies with subsidiaries in the 

U.S. 

These investments are already beginning to pay off and helping to expand our 

intelligence advantage. And we’re taking steps to ensure our space systems and ground 

infrastructure are able to maintain operations through any contingency or threat. 

At the NRO, we’re building the future now.

CHINA AND RUSSIA SPACE THREATS

When I was last here in August 2021, I spoke about the increasing complexity of the 

space domain and the speed at which U.S. advantage from space is being challenged, 

particularly by China and Russia.

Our competitors are developing weapons to destroy or interfere with our satellites 

kinetically or via directed energy from locations on the ground and in space. This 

includes cyber intrusions and cyberattacks that will be a perennial threat to all of our 

systems. 
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We’re seeing rapid investment and advancements in the space domain from our 

competitors in just about every area. As Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines 

noted during her Annual Threat Assessment testimony to Congress earlier this spring, 

China’s commercial space sector is on pace to become a major global competitor to 

U.S. and allied space industries by 2030.

STAYING AHEAD OF COMPETITION 

How we stay ahead of our competitors depends on how much we accelerate our 

development, how much we improve the capabilities we already have in space, and 

how much we innovate, embrace technology, get creative, and take risks.

To ensure we can continue to operate in a heightened threat environment, the NRO has 

continued to modernize our architecture in space and on the ground – to expand our

capabilities and to become faster, more resilient, and more agile. This agility allows us 

to be more responsive, enabling us to quickly pivot and support crisis events such as 

the conflict in Ukraine while simultaneously supporting humanitarian efforts around the 

globe.

We’re also increasing automation, multi-intelligence processes and machine learning 

capabilities so we can operate at the speed of machines, and deliver the right 

information at the right time to the right place ... whether it be to the warfighter in the 

field, a commander on the ops floor, or an analyst at the NGA or NSA. 

Automation and machine learning can focus on the “what, where and when” of our 

intelligence questions, and allow humans to focus on what they do best – answering the 

“why.”

As we take full advantage of all of these new and exciting capabilities and 

collaborations, we’re collectively thinking differently about other functions – for example,

how we task, collect, and disseminate information. With hundreds of satellites and tens 

of millions of daily collections, we’re increasing the quality, quantity, and diversity of the 

data we manage. 

It’s not enough to just deliver the data to the user. We’ve got to manage it efficiently and 

quickly turn it into actionable, usable, information – for our allies, for policymakers, for 

first responders and for warfighters. This way, we can continue to collect and deliver the 

timely ISR data necessary to ensure strategic advantage on Earth and in space for 

America and its allies.

I should add that this transformation of architecture and capabilities isn’t just happening 

in space. Our ground systems and communications architecture are also evolving to 
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meet mission needs. We’re continuing to invest in tools that greatly enhance analysts’ 

ability to use and interpret collected information. And we’re delivering significant new 

ground capabilities that will take better advantage of the collection platforms we’re 

putting on orbit. 

And just like any other critical infrastructure, space infrastructure requires a cyber 

defense. As agencies harness commercial and open-source innovation and automation, 

we’re concerned about software supply chain attacks and any weak links. As a 

community, we need to invest more resources into protecting our space ecosystem. We 

must jointly focus efforts into real-time cyber monitoring and strengthening our systems 

and access controls.

As we all know, you can’t get to outer space and back securely without navigating 

cyberspace securely. 

PARTNERSHIPS AND INNOVATION

Turning to our partnerships – we know we can’t solve today’s challenges on our own. 

We depend on our relationships with other government agencies, other nations, 

academia, and the private sector to identify new opportunities to optimize our talents, 

tools, and effectiveness to serve the American people. 

One of our most critical relationships is with the U.S. Space Force. When I was last here 

at Space Symposium in 2021, I highlighted all the ways that NRO and Space Force 

work together to protect and defend assets in space. Since then, our relationship with 

Space Force has only grown stronger. 

Today the NRO and Space Force are working hand-in-hand to shape the future of the 

Ground Moving Target Indicators (GMTI), which will provide day, night, all-weather 

detection and tracking of ground and maritime targets for the warfighter. 

Working with the Space Force and other military services, the NRO’s flexible acquisition 

approaches will allow us to develop and acquire reliable and resilient GMTI systems at 

speed, delivering this critical capability to the warfighter in the very near future.

I’m also pleased to report that the NRO and Space Force have teamed up to improve 

space situational awareness capabilities, and we will be launching the SILENTBARKER 

vehicles later this summer. These joint efforts are just a few examples where we’re 

leveraging the best of what the Space Force and NRO have to offer to accelerate U.S. 

advantage in space. 
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During the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, NRO systems have provided vital support to our 

allies and partners in Europe. We’re strengthening ties and cooperation with traditional 

allies like the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, while we are also establishing 

relationships with new partners to advance our common interests.

Our industry partners continue to play a critical role in ISR. The marketplace is 

expanding, competition is growing, and companies are innovating at an incredible pace. 

We in the NRO are doing our part to integrate those innovative capabilities into the U.S. 

government architecture. 

In 2021, we established our Strategic Commercial Enhancement Broad Agency 

Announcement program. Our announcement today of the upcoming fourth focus area is 

just the latest example of this flexible acquisition approach. It allows the NRO to 

evaluate and integrate new and emerging space-based technologies as they become 

available commercially. It’s also purposely designed to have low barriers to entry so the 

NRO can cast the widest net possible and capture the best from the commercial 

industry. 

Under this program, the NRO has awarded multiple contracts and on average they have 

been awarded less than three months from RFP release.

For those of you who have done business with the U.S. government, you know that 

three months is just about light speed.

Commercial satellites have continued to advance over the last five years. Today, we 

have contracts with three electro-optical providers, five commercial radar providers, six 

radio frequency remote sensing providers, and, as of last month, six hyperspectral

imaging providers. 

It demonstrates our commitment to innovation and a streamlined acquisition process. 

We have a reputation across the government for our ability to reduce those traditionally 

lengthy development cycles and we’re proud of it. 

Another program we’re proud of is the Director’s Innovation Initiative. The DII gives us 

access to nontraditional developers doing groundbreaking research or exploring cuttingedge technologies, all of which are relevant to our mission. 

For the past 25 years, the DII has fielded thousands of proposals. We’ve awarded 

funding to academia, small and large businesses, and government agencies to – for 

example – study quantum technologies and advances in artificial intelligence and 

machine learning. 
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One small business with expertise in photonics was awarded funding to study unique 

interference mitigation systems. Another small business received money to develop a 

compact-robust laser system. 

In fact, many of the technologies submitted to the DII are already at work in our systems 

– including novel infrared sensor technology.

We’re hoping to meet some of those innovators at our upcoming NRO Tech Forum at 

the end of May. It will bring together scientists, technologists and visionaries from 

across government, academia, and industry to work on some of the NRO’s hardest 

problems and figure out how to innovate faster. 

So if you’re interested in collaborating with some of the best minds in the country to help 

ensure we stay on the cutting edge of reconnaissance, please join us for our two-day 

tech forum at our Chantilly, Virginia headquarters. 

At the NRO, we’re keeping an eye out – looking beyond the horizon 10, 20, 30 years 

from now to find those truly disruptive technologies that are going to be game changers. 

We want to partner with those innovators, work together from design to execution, and 

get that technology into space. 

Yet as we advance our space system architecture, engage new vendors and partners, 

collect and distribute more data, and employ new contracting mechanisms, all of us –

government and industry alike – need to pay attention to detail. 

What we do is hard and demanding. Small oversights can have major consequences –

up to and including mission failure.

We’ve all got to be inquisitive and communicate every step of the way. Know your 

particular aspect of a program to the smallest detail so you can confidently say you did 

what was necessary to assure success. 

This collective mindset will be necessary as we develop and deliver bold new 

capabilities and withstand threats. 

RECRUITING PITCH 

At the NRO, we’re proud of our innovation, our increased capabilities, and our ability to 

evolve along with the challenges we face. One of the main ingredients of our success is 

our highly skilled, technical workforce. 
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We’re investing heavily in recruiting and retaining a dynamic team that represents the 

diversity of our country. Diversity of thought and experience have been inherent in our 

agency since its founding, and will continue to be sources of strength, innovation, and 

resilience in the future. 

Just seven years ago, we created the NRO Cadre, three years ago we began our intern 

program. In that short time, we have participated in about 50 recruiting events with more 

than half of those diversity-focused. We’re reaching a wider talent pool through online 

recruitment tools and third-party job boards and have launched our NRO.gov/Careers 

website.

And we’re especially proud of our growing NRO cadre summer internship program. We 

started with 10 cadre interns in 2020. This summer we expect to have 75 cadre interns. 

The Office of Human Resources received over 1,100 summer intern applications this 

year, more than double compared to last year.

To date, we’ve hired 21 of those interns.

If you or someone you know would be a great fit for the NRO, please send them our 

way. Joining the NRO is a mission like no other. Come join our team.

CONCLUSION 

At the NRO, we have a long history of pushing boundaries, using innovation and 

imagination to bring the farthest reaches of our planet into focus. 

With each new advancement in ISR technology, we’ve increased the amount of 

intelligence collected from space and decreased the amount of time needed to get that 

intelligence where it needs to be. 

We have a clear example of this in the exhibit hall. I hope you’ve had a change to stop 

by our booth, where we have a number of historical artifacts on display, including a 

model of our innovative Corona satellite – the world’s first photoreconnaissance 

satellite, developed as a response to rising threats during the Cold War. It’s some pretty 

fascinating stuff. 

In 1960, when the first Corona imagery bucket was recovered from space, it included 

more imagery of the Soviet Union than all of the previous two dozen U-2 overflights of 

the Soviet Union combined. If you de-spooled the film from that groundbreaking

mission, it would reach from this conference center to about the lobby across the street 

in the Broadmoor hotel.
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We continued this innovation and delivered even more intelligence when the Hexagon 

satellite replaced Corona in 1971. Hexagon’s multiple recovery buckets carried nearly 

250 times more film than the first successful Corona mission – enough linear feet of film 

to stretch from here to the outskirts of Denver. 

That spirit of innovation is still our focus today – as we continue to push boundaries and 

develop new and better technology to make sure our leaders have the data and the 

intelligence they need ... to make real-time decisions, protect warfighters, and get our 

sons and daughters home safely from war zones. Today, instead of innovating to 

respond to world events, we’re innovating to stay ahead of world events. 

What was a vision for our agency just a few years ago is in view. The future is now. I am 

confident that the NRO, our people and our partners, are all committed not to just keep 

pace, but to accelerate our advantage in space. The safety and security of the world 

and our nation are counting on it. Thank you. 

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