The House Oversight Committee formally demanded answers from four federal agencies Monday on the deaths and disappearances of at least 11 American scientists and researchers with ties to NASA, nuclear research, and classified defense programs—several of them directly connected to the space defense technologies now being commercialized by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), the chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs, sent letters to FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, requesting staff-level briefings no later than April 27.
“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets,” the letters read.
The White House formally acknowledged the pattern on April 15, when press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked directly about it at a briefing. “If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into,” she responded.
“I just left a meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff.”
“If there’s any connections that lead to nefarious conduct or conspiracy, this FBI will make the appropriate arrest.”
The bureau told Fortune in a statement, “The FBI is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and local law enforcement partners to find answers.”
The committee’s letters focus on NASA and nuclear research connections, but the broader context is the commercial space-defense industry that these scientists helped build. The planetary defense and nuclear research fields are notably insular: There are only a couple hundred scientists who specialize in asteroid characterization, deflection modeling, and space-based detection.
Blue Origin unveiled its NEO Hunter planetary defense concept in March 2026, developed in partnership with California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Caltech and built on its Blue Ring spacecraft platform. The ion-beam deflection and kinetic impact capabilities it proposes share core technology with missile-defense detection and interception systems.
Both companies have received substantial federal contracts under the Trump administration. Space Force awarded SpaceX nearly $6 billion and Blue Origin approximately $2.3 billion in national security launch contracts in April 2025. SpaceX is separately under contract for the Golden Dome missile defense satellite constellation; Blue Origin has been added to the $151 billion SHIELD contract through the Missile Defense Agency and hired its first-ever president of national security in December 2025.
NASA Administrator Isaacman, one of the four letter recipients, has championed the expansion of the privatization of missions previously managed by government agencies. Neither SpaceX nor Blue Origin responded to Fortune’s requests for comment.
The letters flag a close professional tie between two of the missing: Aerojet Rocketdyne and JPL engineer Monica Reza and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, both of whom vanished, in 2025 and 2026 respectively. The letters note that the two worked together on “an Air Force–funded research program in the early 2000s pertaining to advanced materials needed for reusable space vehicles and weapons,” which Comer and Burlison say has not been explained.
The cases date back to 2022 and span JPL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MIT, Caltech, and the Kansas City National Security Campus. Reza, 60, was director of JPL’s materials processing group and had patented a nickel super-alloy used in both space travel and weaponry when she vanished during a hike on Angeles Crest Highway in June 2025 and was never found. She patented a nickel super-alloy for rocket manufacturing, research that went into reusable rocket programs like New Glenn and Starship. McCasland, 68, disappeared from his Albuquerque home on Feb. 27 of this year, leaving on foot with only a .38 caliber revolver.
JPL principal scientist Frank Maiwald, 61, died on July 4, 2024, with no cause of death released and no statement from NASA. Government contractor Steven Garcia, who oversaw nuclear weapons assets at the Kansas City National Security Campus, disappeared from Albuquerque in August 2025, last seen on surveillance footage leaving on foot with a handgun.
Former FBI official Chris Swecker recently shared that the pattern is consistent with how “several foreign powers” operate, by “abducting, blackmailing, torturing, and even killing” scientists to gain intel.
