SpaceX employee damage charges at Starbase outpace business rivals

SpaceX workers usually tend to be injured whereas working at Starbase than any of its different manufacturing services, in response to firm employee security information reviewed by TechCrunch.

Starbase, a sprawling launch-and-manufacturing website that lately included as its personal Texas metropolis, logged damage charges virtually six instances greater than the common for comparable area car manufacturing outfits and almost 3 times greater than aerospace manufacturing as a complete in 2024, in response to Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) knowledge launched in Could. That oversized damage fee has endured since 2019, when SpaceX started sharing Starbase damage knowledge with the federal regulator. 

Starbase is dwelling to SpaceX’s most formidable program: a completely reusable, ultra-heavy-lift rocket known as Starship. The corporate has been shifting at a breakneck tempo to convey Starship on-line to launch Starlink web satellites and different payloads. 

Since Starship’s first orbital check in April 2023, SpaceX has tried eight further built-in flights. Throughout three of these exams, the corporate made historical past by catching the huge Tremendous Heavy booster with “chopstick” arms hooked up to the launch tower. 

The information means that SpaceX’s speedy progress comes at a value. And whereas damage charges alone don’t present a whole image of the protection tradition at Starbase, they do supply a uncommon glimpse into the working circumstances of the world’s main area firm. 

Breaking down Starbase numbers

OSHA makes use of a standardized security metric known as Whole Recordable Incident Fee (TRIR) to measure an organization’s security file and evaluate it to business friends, like Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance. The publicly out there knowledge has limitations. It doesn’t distinguish between minor accidents like stitches versus critical incidents comparable to amputations. 

TechCrunch calculated the TRIR based mostly on that knowledge, which incorporates the overall variety of incidents and whole variety of hours labored by SpaceX workers at every website. 

Starbase, which performs a central function in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s mission to make life multi-planetary, is an outlier within the firm and throughout the business as a complete. Its TRIR topped out at 4.27 accidents per 100 employees in 2024, when it employed a mean of two,690 employees, in response to the info submitted to OSHA. Injured Starbase workers have been unable to carry out their regular job duties for a complete of three,558 restricted-duty days, plus 656 lost-time days the place accidents made them unable to work in any respect. 

Starbase is classed by the U.S. authorities as an area car manufacturing operation. The damage fee on this sector has fallen dramatically since 1994, dropping from 4.2 accidents per 100 employees to 0.7 accidents per 100 employees in 2023, in response to historic knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (BLS calculates these charges by its annual firm surveys, which asks for a similar data present in OSHA’s employee damage varieties.) However regardless of main adjustments in security processes throughout the business, Starbase is nearer to the charges of 30 years in the past. 

The damage fee throughout all of SpaceX’s manufacturing services — which incorporates an engine growth and testing website in McGregor, Texas; a Starlink satellite tv for pc manufacturing advanced in Bastrop, Texas; the Falcon rocket advanced in Hawthorne, California; and one other satellite tv for pc manufacturing website in Redmond, Washington — is 2.28. 

These different services report decrease TRIR charges, although most nonetheless exceed the business averages. For example, 2024 knowledge exhibits TRIR charges 2.48 at McGregor, 3.49 at Bastrop, 1.43 at Hawthorne, 2.89 on the Redmond website. The 2024 TRIR for aerospace manufacturing as a complete is 1.6. 

SpaceX additionally operates a number of non-manufacturing websites, together with barge operations off each coasts, places of work in Sunnyvale, California, and launch websites at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Area Power Base. 

Former OSHA Chief of Employees Debbie Berkowitz instructed TechCrunch by way of e-mail that Starbase’s TRIR “is a pink flag that there are critical issues of safety that have to be addressed.” 

Nonetheless, there’s a debate amongst security professionals about whether or not TRIR is probably the most dependable metric for assessing and predicting damage charges, significantly critical incidents like fatalities, and particularly for small corporations. A latest paper on TRIR questioned its statistical validity and advocated that organizations use various measures of security efficiency as a substitute. 

Of the 14 OSHA inspections at SpaceX services over the previous 4 years, six concerned accidents and accidents at Starbase. That features a partial finger amputation in 2021 and a crane collapse in June 2025. The latter inspection continues to be ongoing. Investigations by different information shops together with Reuters have uncovered a whole bunch of beforehand unreported employee accidents, together with crushed limbs and one fatality. 

The 2024 damage fee at Starbase marks an enchancment to that of the prior yr, which topped out at 5.9 accidents per 100 employees in 2023 and 4.8 accidents in 2022. Nevertheless it nonetheless leads amongst SpaceX’s land-based services, and is second general solely to its west coast booster restoration operations, which has a TRIR of seven.6. 

OSHA confirmed TechCrunch’s calculation of Starbase’s TRIR over e-mail, however in any other case didn’t reply to questions relating to that location’s damage fee. SpaceX didn’t reply to request for remark.   

NASA’s stake

NASA has a serious stake in Starship’s growth. The company is relying on utilizing the rocket to return people to the Moon earlier than the tip of this decade, and it’s paying greater than $4 billion to SpaceX for 2 crewed Starship flights to the lunar floor. 

Each the contract for the Starship lander and SpaceX’s contract for its Industrial Crew companies to the Worldwide Area Station comprise explicit clauses that enable the company to take motion within the case of a serious breach of security, comparable to a fatality or a “willful” or “repeat” OSHA violation. 

Whereas a persistently excessive TRIR fee will be proof of a security downside, it’s not an computerized set off for motion, and doesn’t fall beneath the definition of a “main breach of security” of their contracts. 

“NASA interacts often with its companions, together with SpaceX, to make sure security from a mission assurance perspective, and stays in common contact with the corporate throughout regular contract administration,” a NASA spokesperson instructed TechCrunch in response to questions concerning the firm’s TRIR. “Security is paramount to NASA’s mission success. The company continues to work with all our business companions to construct and preserve a wholesome security tradition.” 

Amongst rocket makers with automobiles in operation, Starbase nonetheless leads the pack: at ULA’s manufacturing facility in Decatur, Alabama, the TRIR is 1.12 accidents per 100 employees; at Blue Origin’s rocket park on the coast of Florida, the speed is 1.09.