This NASA scientist, who passed away in 2023, is now being considered the ninth death linked to secret U.S. space and nuclear work. He worked on NASA’s DART mission.

According to the Daily Mail, there is a growing mystery surrounding the death of a NASA scientist, Michael Hicks, along with a series of other scientists linked to secret U.S. space and nuclear programs.

Hicks was a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1998 to 2022. He died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59, but no public explanation of his death has been provided, and no autopsy records have been found.

His obituaries did not mention any health problems, making his death appear sudden and unexpected. NASA and JPL have not commented on the matter.

Hicks was an expert on comets and asteroids and authored more than 80 scientific papers. He worked on NASA’s DART mission, which tested whether humans could deflect a potentially dangerous asteroid, as well as the Deep Space 1 mission, which tested new spacecraft technology and flew past a comet in 2001.

His death has been described as the ninth case in a pattern involving scientists connected to U.S. space or nuclear programs who have died or disappeared in recent years.

Congressman Tim Burchett has stated that there have been several other suspicious disappearances across the U.S. He has mentioned at least four additional cases he is examining, including that of retired Air Force Major General William McCasland, who went missing on February 27, 2026. McCasland, aged 68, reportedly left his home and then disappeared.

His case is said to be linked to Monica Reza, JPL’s new Director of the Materials Processing Group, and astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, through their shared involvement in advanced missile and rocket science.