Trump · Fortune Technology
Blue Origin rolled out its NEO Hunter planetary defense concept in March 2026
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Both companies have received substantial federal contracts under the Trump administration.
Key facts
- Space Force awarded SpaceX nearly $6 billion and Blue Origin approximately $2.3 billion in national security launch contracts in April 2025
- JPL principal scientist Frank Maiwald, 61, died on July 4, 2024, with no cause of death released and no statement from NASA
- Michael Hicks, who worked at JPL from 1998 to 2022, passed away in July 2023 at age 59
- He worked on asteroid characterization research that was used in NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, and was the same methodology that Blue Origin’s NEO Hunter was modeled
Summary
Almost a dozen scientists related to nuclear and space defense programs tied to NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin are dead or missing in cases as far back as 2022, and they’ve gone largely unnoticed by authorities and the public—until now. 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. “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. Later on Monday, Comer said the string of deaths was unlikely to be a coincidence.