Dr. Chris Scolese

Director, National Reconnaissance Office

36th Annual Space Symposium

Keynote Presentation

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

August 24, 2021
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Good morning everyone. The NRO turns 60 this year. 

Exactly two weeks from today. That’s a big reason we did 

that video.

It’s also an unprecedented time at our agency. Some 

of that is a by-product of the competitive environment 

we’re seeing in space. 

But it’s really about the heritage of the NRO, and how 

we’re constantly innovating, to remain the world’s leader in 

space-based ISR.

This morning, I want to spend a little time on our first 

60 years. But I want to spend a lot of time looking at the 

next 60, and the big, bold steps we’re taking every 

day.

We weren’t quite a space-faring nation when the NRO 

was formed back in 1961. But, as a country, we already 

had a pretty good idea that our modern way of life—our 

economy, our military and our national security—would 

depend upon our ability to operate “up there.” These days, 

our reliance on space is more ingrained than ever.
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Since the very beginning, NRO’s mission has been to 

maintain and expand our crucial intelligence advantage in 

space, to protect and defend the U.S. In recent years, the 

“protect and defend” part of that mission has been taken to 

new heights. 

For more than half our 60 years, we were a black 

operation. The country didn’t even know we existed until 

the mid-90s. And a lot of folks liked it that way.

Today, it’s vitally important that we not only 

acknowledge what we do, but we recognize our partners, 

and we set the stage with our bold vision for the NRO.

On any given day, the NRO services a half-million 

users across the government, and not just DoD and every 

IC agency. We serve policy-makers, decision-makers, and 

we provide direct support to our warfighters. 

But we also provide that data and imagery to a couple 

dozen domestic agencies, covering everything from 

natural disasters, to crop production, to climate change.
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Over the past two weeks, we’ve focused our systems 

on Afghanistan and Haiti, to not only broaden the 

understanding of each situation, but ultimately help 

agencies on the ground perform.

These partnerships—especially our working 

relationship with NGA and NSA—are established and wellknown. What’s not is the partnership that will be 

foundational to our strategic environment in space. 

That relationship has also been a source of 

speculation for some time. Let’s clear up the way we work 

with Space Force and SPACECOM.

General Raymond and I flew here. Together. On the 

same plane. We spent Sunday night at a reception with 

General Dickinson. Thank you, sir! 

Space, as a domain, is huge. But this community—

those of us who actually “do” space for a living—is 

pretty small. Just looking around the room and seeing 

how many people we work with, this isn’t earth-shattering.
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But here’s something you probably don’t know. Since 

the stand-up of Space Force and Space Command two 

years ago, we have been working as intimately as you 

can imagine: on operations, on capability development, 

and most importantly, on the road ahead. 

The three of us just finished signing the Protect and 

Defend Strategic Framework, covering national security 

in space. This high-level document formalizes end-to-end 

operations between DoD and the IC, on everything from 

acquisition to operations.

In practical terms, it defines and de-conflicts each of 

our roles. It drives consistent and deliberate 

coordination at multiple levels. It establishes crisis 

planning and improves communication.

And most importantly, it establishes an

unprecedented level of collaboration on all space 

security matters.
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Recently, two long-time members of our space family 

took prominent roles. Our own General Guetlein went west 

to stand-up Space Systems Command. We know he has a 

bold vision for SSC and we know that our relationship 

will get even better.

Secretary Kendall’s space experience dates back to 

the Cold War and his acquisition experience is on-par with 

anyone. 

Why is this important? As Secretary Kendall 

mentioned—we’re infinitely better when we have likeminded partners, across industry, across borders—and 

I’m not just talking about Five Eyes, I’m talking about all of 

our allies—and across the government.

This diversity of ideas and capabilities makes us 

stronger and smarter. As my good friend Vice Admiral 

Sharp likes to say, “We not only have good friends, we 

have friends that are good.”
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What China and Russia have already shown, is that 

space is now a race. It’s a competition. It’s a fight. And if 

we’re not careful, it’s going to become a knock-down, 

drag-out brawl.

Let’s not forget how much money, manpower and 

research they—and I’m talking China here—are

throwing at space. We’re talking about counter-space 

capabilities, newer and better weapons. We won’t even 

get into cyber attacks just yet. 

In short, China is showing an unquenchable drive 

to get ahead of us, and take what’s been our 

operational and intelligence advantage since JFK was 

in office.

If we— and by “we” I mean all of us in this room—

don’t step up our game, we risk losing the high-ground. 

China is very smart, very driven, and they don’t have the 

constraints we have. 
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Remember, the Chinese are dual-use. The 

government owns commercial IP. So, even though their 

satellites may be labeled “commercial,” they’re actually 

doing the work of the Chinese Communist Party. And 

there are a lot of them up there.

How we fend off this competition and where we go 

from here largely depends on how much we accelerate 

our development, and how much we’re able to 

improve the capabilities we already have in space.

Technology and innovation have been hallmarks

of the NRO as long as the agency has been around. To 

quote my colleague and our good friend over at the NSA, 

“The NRO is unparalleled in its innovation, creativity 

and willingness to take risks.”

Just take a look at last year. We set a record in 2020. 

We put 12 payloads in orbit, on six launches, on two 

continents, in the middle of a pandemic.
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If you count the four payloads we launched earlier this 

year, that’s almost a payload a month. What you see there 

is L-111, back on 15 June. We put three payloads in orbit 

out of Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

We managed to maintain 100% of our capabilities

during COVID, and all the credit goes to our amazing 

workforce and the unity of effort from our partners. 

Next year, we’re planning four launches in 29 days. 

Two of them will be in New Zealand.

But to keep pace in this power competition, we have 

to do even more. Let’s face it: technology is a two-way 

street. Our technology improves, but so do the targets 

we’re trying to collect against. 

We already have a number of initiatives to support the

continued rapid infusion of advanced technology—

options we’re already aware of and ones that haven’t even 

been discovered.
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The Director’s Innovation Initiative—DII—gives us 

access to non-traditional developers that are doing 

groundbreaking research, or exploring cutting-edge 

technologies, all of which are relevant to our mission, and 

have high-payoff potential.

Since 1998, we’ve fielded six thousand proposals 

from 44 states. A third of the submissions came from 

vendors new to the NRO. A quarter of the projects we 

approved and funded, continued after the first year.

Many of the technologies submitted to DII are already 

at-work in our systems. I should also call out that we’ve 

placed no quotas or limits for any given area.

This year alone, we have 24 projects, covering 

magnetically-levitated gyroscopes, adhesives that can 

attach and detach in a vacuum, and large, lightweight 

apertures. And we’re still looking for more.

We also have Astrolabe, academic outreach, and our 

Enterprise Commercial Consortium, and we're working 

with In-Q-Tel to match our needs with nascent technology. 
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I have to mention our new partner and our expanded 

relationship with SDA, specifically the communication 

layer they have under development. In the coming years, it 

will provide the underpinning for a number of our 

capabilities.

If you have technology you think we can use, go to 

the “Innovate-at-NRO” section of NRO-dot-gov. 

We’re already making architectural changes to 

improve resiliency, increase capacity and capabilities.

NRO’s “Architecture After Next” is made up of national and 

commercial satellites, large and small constellations, 

working across multiple orbits. 

To populate this architecture, we have to leverage 

industry even more. Innovation can happen at any level, 

in any organization, and we want to take advantage of the 

best. 
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On the commercial side, we’ve seen an explosion 

of innovation. Today’s commercial partners now provide 

imagery as a service, which allows us to focus on the 

difficult tasks.

We re-configured our next-gen commercial contracts 

to include pricing that incentivizes innovation, and 

rewards the development of new capabilities. Those

went out the first week in June with our draft RFP for 

Electro-Optical.

We use the same approach for our global ground 

systems. That way, we can support and manage massive 

amounts of data, we can integrate even more spacecraft, 

we can improve decision-making, and shorten reaction 

timelines.

Commercial launch providers have all lowered 

barriers to space, by lowering cost and giving us 

flexibility in launch locations. Production spacecraft are 

already playing an increased role in our architecture.
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We have to continue the evolution of our 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. 

Our agency structure is as flat as it gets, and we 

hold end-to-end responsibility, from concept to operations.

This gives us a unique ability to identify and develop 

the newest technology, then inject those capabilities right 

into our architecture, quickly and efficiently.

We buy what we can from our commercial partners, 

and build what we must. This allows us to move faster, 

reduce cost, explore innovative technologies, and still 

meet our mission needs.

Finally, I want to leave you with a quote from 

Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper: “We’re all on the 

same team here, whether you’re playing halfback or 

fullback. All that really matters is whether the warfighter 

and the Intel community are well-served.”
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Our proven track record in that area, and our ability to

continue and expand our mission, would not exist without 

our partners. 

I’m including our traditional partners, our new 

partners, as well as Space Force, and SPACECOM.

Together, with our commitment to technology and 

innovation, these partnerships form the foundation we 

need, that when our adversaries start flexing their muscle, 

we can punch back.

Thank you for your time.

And thank you again for having me.