Distant Star Facility

"An independent contractor proposed the project and ran things out of a lab complex." "Do we have to guess who funded this independent contractor?" "No you don't. It was Gideon Malick."

- Luther Banks and Jemma Simmons

Distant Star Facility is a abandoned private NASA laboratory used in Project Distant Star Return.

Project Distant Star Return
In 2001, one of HYDRA's leaders, Gideon Malick, approached NASA and offered them to run Project Distant Star Return to explore space using the Monolith. NASA readily accepted the proposal, as it would be funded by Malick. The whole operation took place in the external Distant Star Facility‏‎ under the oversight of NASA. While posed as a project to research the Monolith and explore Maveth, Malick sought to use the project as a means on finding Hive and bringing him back to rule Earth. NASA successfully sent an astronaut, Will Daniels, and three scientists, Taylor, Brubaker, and Austin, through the Monolith. With Malick officially serving on the World Security Council and the Monolith stored on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s aircraft carrier Iliad, the project was put on hold and facility was abandoned.

Ambush
Phil Coulson ordered Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons, Luther Banks and two agents to investigate an abandoned Distant Star Facility. As they came to facility, Banks had killed the twoagents and swiveled to point the gun at Fitz and Simmons. Fitz begged him not to kill them, but Banks managed to say that he was not controlling the gun before it floated out of his hand, turned, and shot Banks in head. Giyera revealed himself as the cause of the deaths and explained that Gideon Malick needed Fitz and Simmons, and ordered the two to follow him to HYDRA.