Starting with 2022 year, at least 11 leading scientists and researchers, whose activities were closely related to NASA, nuclear developments and ambitious projects of SpaceX and Blue Origin have died or gone missing. For a long time, these incidents were treated as separate cases. However, today the situation has acquired the status of a threat to national security at the highest state level.
The Oversight Committee of the US House of Representatives has officially moved into action. Committee Chairman James Comer and Congressman Eric Burlison directed inquiries to the country's key agencies — the FBI, Ministry of Energy, Pentagon and NASA. Lawmakers demand urgent briefings, because the series of tragedies seems too systemic, to be a common coincidence. US President Donald Trump also confirmed the seriousness of the situation, noting, that the victims were "extremely important people". Currently, the administration is conducting a comprehensive review of all cases, trying to find common denominators between incidents. FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the launch of a large-scale investigation, which should be found out, whether foreign special services or a conspiracy to steal classified data are behind it.
Most of the scientists had access to confidential scientific data, because they worked in an extremely narrow and closed field — planetary defense and monitoring of near-Earth objects (NEO). These technologies have a dual purpose: asteroid deflection methods are identical to ballistic missile interception systems. In particular, Blue Origin in March 2026 presented the NEO Hunter concept, built on the Blue Ring platform. This device uses ion beams to manipulate cosmic bodies. SpaceX, in turn, is working on the Golden Dome satellite group (multi-level anti-missile defense system). Scientists, who became victims or disappeared, had unique knowledge about these systems, and also about the physics of superalloys, required for reusable missiles, such as Starship and New Glenn.
The list of casualties is impressive for its geography and circumstances: Monica Reza, JPL top manager, which patented a unique nickel superalloy for SpaceX and Blue Origin engines, disappeared without a trace during a walk in 2025 year; Major General William Neal McCasland, an expert in materials for reusable devices, left home in February 2026 and never returned; Carl Grillmire, astrophysicist, whose calculations formed the basis of the NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor telescopes, was found shot to death on his front porch; Frank Maiwald (chief scientist at JPL) and Michael Hicks (a DART mission specialist) passed away under unexplained or undeclared circumstances; cases at Los Alamos National Laboratory are of particular concern, where two employees disappeared within weeks of each other, leaving phones in cars, wallets and keys are a sign of that, that they could be forcibly taken away right during the performance of everyday tasks.
Security experts, including former FBI agents, assume, that the United States faced an aggressive operation by hostile powers. Methods of "kidnapping, blackmail or liquidation" are characteristic of attempts to obtain critical defense technologies bypassing official channels. The space race of the 2020s has become so fierce, that intellectual capital has become the main goal.
Currently, NASA says there is no direct evidence of a threat to national security, however, it promises complete transparency. Meanwhile, private giants, like SpaceX and Blue Origin, who received billion-dollar contracts from the US Space Force, remain silent, strengthening internal security measures. 27 In April, the FBI and NASA are to submit the first reports to Congress on the investigation into the deaths and disappearances of scientists.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com