Intuitive Machines Puts Former NRO Director Christopher Scolese on Its Board

Intuitive Machines appointed Dr. Christopher Scolese, who ran the National Reconnaissance Office from 2019 to 2026, to its board on October 22, 2026, filling the Class II seat that Michael Blitzer vacated the day before. The current report carries no quarterly financial results; it is a board change and nothing else. The seat pays a $60,000 annual cash retainer in 2026 plus committee fees, and the company gave Scolese seats on the audit and nominating committees and the chair of the conflicts committee.

Blitzer's departure and Scolese's arrival were disclosed in the same filing, and the swap keeps the board at the size it had in the spring proxy.

A one-day vacancy on a staggered board

Blitzer resigned effective October 21, 2026, giving up his audit, nominating and governance and conflicts committee seats along with the chair of the compensation committee. The April proxy's committee roster shows he also sat on the Strategic Transactions Committee and chaired it, so the resignation cost the board two chairs rather than one; the 8-K names only the three committees and the compensation chairmanship. The filing states the resignation "was not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices." The board filled the hole the next day on the nominating committee's recommendation, and Scolese's term runs to the 2027 annual meeting.

The April 24, 2026 proxy described a six-director board split into three staggered classes, with Blitzer and Nicole Seligman as the Class II pair. Because the appointment fills an existing vacancy rather than adding a seat, headcount stays at six, and Scolese does not face shareholders until 2027: only Class III seats were up at the 2026 annual meeting, per the April proxy.

The 2026 pay attached to the seat

Directors' cash rose this year. The proxy sets the 2026 board retainer at $60,000, up 9.09% from $55,000 in 2025, and the chairman's at $110,000, up 4.76% from $105,000. Committee service adds $20,000 for the audit chair and $10,000 for each other audit member, and $15,000 for the chair and $7,500 for each member of the compensation, nominating and conflicts committees.

Scolese's four roles therefore carry $92,500 a year in cash at those rates, a calculation from the proxy schedule rather than a number the company disclosed for him. His 2026 payment is smaller than that: the proxy pays annual retainers in quarterly installments in arrears and pro-rates them for any partial calendar quarter of service, and his service began October 22. The equity piece is larger on the 2025 numbers, though it comes from a different plan year: for 2025 each non-employee director received restricted stock units valued at $200,000, with $250,000 for the chair, and the proxy states no 2026 grant value. Those awards vest in full on the earlier of the first anniversary of the grant date and the next annual meeting, and are stated at grant-date fair value, not cash paid, before estimated forfeitures. The filing makes him eligible for that program and says the company expects to sign its standard indemnification agreement; it does not state the size of his first grant. Blitzer's 2025 pay totaled $295,000, and that is cash plus stock rather than cash: $95,000 of fees earned or paid in cash and $200,000 of stock awards.

A national-security resume aimed at government buyers

Scolese spent seven years running the NRO, which builds and operates the reconnaissance satellites used by the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, and seven before that running NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He was also NASA's associate administrator, acting administrator and chief engineer, and began as a naval officer working on nuclear propulsion. He now leads the Vanderbilt Institute for Innovations Beyond Earth and teaches in Vanderbilt's electrical and computer engineering department.

That background maps onto the customers the release itself names: it describes a company serving "commercial, civil, and national security customers" that builds "mission-critical spacecraft and systems" and operates space infrastructure, and it says his experience "developing and operating complex space systems will help shape the expansion" of that business. The documents do not identify which programs or requirements the NRO background is meant to serve. Ghaffarian framed the hire in those terms: "His leadership across civil and national security space programs will help guide Intuitive Machines' growth as we scale our space infrastructure for commercial, civil, and national security customers." He also credited Blitzer with helping "take Intuitive Machines public in 2023" and with backing the capital raises and acquisitions that followed.

Two committee chairs with no named successor

Blitzer held two committee chairs, and neither document names a replacement for either one. The 8-K says nothing about who will chair the compensation committee after his resignation, and it does not address the strategic transactions committee at all, including who will lead it. The proxy listed the compensation committee as Robert Masson and Blitzer, with Blitzer in the chair, and it does not list strategic transactions service among the additional committee fees it pays, so that second vacancy carries no stated pay. One chairmanship does move by name: the April proxy listed William J. Liquori as chair of the Conflicts Committee, and the 8-K makes Scolese its chair, a switch the release, which says nothing about committees, never mentions. Nor do the filings describe Scolese's financial-reporting or audit experience. The proxy is explicit about the director whose audit committee seat he takes: it records that the board had determined Blitzer qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert,” as such term is defined in Item 407(d)(5) of Regulation S-K. No captured document attaches that designation to Scolese.

The next fixed date in these documents is the 2027 annual meeting, when his Class II term ends and shareholders get their first vote on the seat.