On Wednesday, June 18, 2025, NRO Director Chris Scolese highlighted speed, innovation, and strong partnerships as keys to the NRO’s success in an address to the Maryland Space Business Roundtable.
From NRO News: Addressing an audience of more than 250 professionals from industry, government, and academia, Scolese discussed how the NRO is leveraging partnerships to manage the challenges of a contested space environment, while capturing its biggest opportunities. “The NRO is moving faster than ever before,” Scolese said, “enhancing design and manufacturing, diversifying launch capabilities, managing vast data collections, and forging new business relationships to build capability; and doing it all at speeds that were not possible even five years ago.”
According to Scolese, the NRO’s many stakeholders – including the warfighter, policymaker, and first responder – rely on the NRO to deliver data faster, and in formats useful for their application. To deliver capability faster, he said the NRO is “looking at everything from R&D, to acquisition, launch, and operations; providing opportunities for new organizations from government, academia, and industry to surface innovative technologies and to rapidly demonstrate the creation of new capabilities.”
Scolese emphasized that partnerships have evolved to become a true strategic advantage for the NRO, by increasing capability, improving resilience, and providing opportunities for new ideas to flourish. He pointed, in particular, to academia and commercial enterprises – including new entrants with emerging technologies and tools – with whom the NRO is working to surface new ideas that enhance mission success.
To read the full article, visit NRO News: www.nro.gov/news-media-featured-stories/news-media-archive/News-Article/Article/4220831/director-speaks-to-leading-in-space-through-speed-innovation-and-partnerships/
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Director Makenzie Lystrup is accompanied by former Directors David Mitchell, Chris Scolese, Dennis Andrucyk and George Morrow.