[1] In 1987, following a brief period of service working in government and industry, Scolese joined NASA, where he was assigned to the Goddard Space Flight Center.

In 2001, Scolese was assigned to NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. where he served as the deputy associate administrator in the Office of Space Science.

And from January 20 2009 to July 2009, Scolese served as NASA's acting administrator, responsible for leading the development, design and implementation of the nation's civil space program.

[7] In a 2017 interview, Bolden indicated this reflected his desire to move Scolese's "leadership and decision making responsibility for the James Webb Space Telescope to Goddard.

"[8] At Goddard Scolese led the nation's largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists responsible for building spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, the Solar System, and the universe.