SpaceX’s Starbase metropolis officers silent on crane collapse

A crane collapsed at SpaceX’s South Texas rocket facility this week, and the corporate’s newly shaped metropolis received’t say if anybody was damage.

On June 23, a crane getting used to wash up particles from the latest SpaceX rocket explosion collapsed on the firm’s launch complicated. Footage of the accident was captured by Lab Padre, one of many content material creators who movie and {photograph} the location frequently. But it surely was filmed from distant, making it unattainable to inform whether or not anybody was harmed or in peril.

SpaceX has not publicly acknowledged the collapse and didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark. That’s not shocking; whereas the corporate posts particulars about spaceflight mishaps, like when its Starship rockets blow up, it’s in any other case tight-lipped.

However SpaceX’s facility is now a part of a newly integrated metropolis referred to as Starbase, Texas, and this accident occurred inside its borders. And after one of many Starship rockets blew up on a check stand final week, Starbase officers made a brief submit on X about it.

There was no submit in regards to the crane collapse, although, and the town has ignored direct appeals for data. TechCrunch has contacted Starbase’s essential media e-mail tackle, its mayor, its two commissioners, its metropolis administrator, and its clerk this week. None have responded to a number of requests for details about the accident.

The collapse is without doubt one of the first assessments of whether or not Starbase metropolis has an urge for food (and can) for transparency whereas being run by a SpaceX government, and performing as a house for the corporate and greater than 200 of its workers. Starbase can also be financially beholden to Elon Musk’s spaceflight firm: Simply this week, the town finalized a $1.5 million mortgage from SpaceX to fund the town’s operations by way of September 2025.

The concept of constructing a metropolis referred to as Starbase was first floated by Musk in 2021. But it surely wasn’t till Could of this yr that it formally grew to become a metropolis. Its residents — principally SpaceX workers — voted overwhelmingly to include. SpaceX’s vp of “Texas Take a look at and Launch,” Bobby Peden, grew to become mayor. The corporate’s senior director of environmental, well being, and security, Jordan Buss, grew to become a commissioner. The opposite commissioner, Jenna Petrzelka, labored at SpaceX for years.

These officers have been busy shaping the brand new metropolis in the previous couple of weeks. Town despatched out a discover in late Could to residents in a newly proposed “blended use district” that they might “lose the suitable to proceed utilizing” their property. Town additionally began erecting gates at SpaceX’s request that restrict entry to the town, citing security issues. Buss stated in a gathering that Starbase would grant entry to outsiders “if there’s a have to be within the metropolis” and supply “entry codes” to ambulances, firefighters, and regulation enforcement, in accordance with Valley Central.

It’s not clear if these sorts of emergency providers had been wanted Tuesday when the crane collapsed. The Cameron County Sheriff’s Division informed TechCrunch that it didn’t obtain any calls from Starbase across the time of the accident. Native hearth officers from the close by metropolis of Brownsville and from Cameron County didn’t reply to requests for remark.

All we all know in regards to the collapse — other than seeing it occur — is that the Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) has opened an investigation, in accordance with CNBC.

SpaceX has a troubled historical past of employee security. However OSHA investigations take time, and the company has been diminished by cuts from Musk’s DOGE mission. Musk’s firms additionally don’t have very constructive relationships with OSHA. In 2019, Tesla refused to let OSHA inspectors enter its manufacturing facility in Nevada, even when these inspectors returned with a sheriff’s deputy and a warrant signed by the decide.