Starbase damage charges outpace rivals as SpaceX chases its Mars moonshot

SpaceX staff 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 web site that not too long ago integrated as its personal Texas metropolis, logged damage charges nearly six instances increased than the typical for comparable house automobile manufacturing outfits and almost thrice increased than aerospace manufacturing as a complete in 2024, in response to Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) knowledge launched in Might. That oversized damage price has continued since 2019, when SpaceX started sharing Starbase damage knowledge with the federal regulator. 

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

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

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

Breaking down Starbase numbers

OSHA makes use of a standardized security metric known as Complete Recordable Incident Price (TRIR) to measure an organization’s security file and evaluate it to trade 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 severe incidents comparable to amputations. 

TechCrunch calculated the TRIR based mostly on that knowledge, which incorporates the entire variety of incidents and complete variety of hours labored by SpaceX staff at every web site. 

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 trade as a complete. Its TRIR topped out at 4.27 accidents per 100 staff in 2024, when it employed a mean of two,690 staff, in response to the info submitted to OSHA. Injured Starbase staff 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 automobile manufacturing operation. The damage price on this sector has fallen dramatically since 1994, dropping from 4.2 accidents per 100 staff to 0.7 accidents per 100 staff in 2023, in response to historic knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (BLS calculates these charges via its annual firm surveys, which asks for a similar info present in OSHA’s employee damage types.) However regardless of main modifications in security processes throughout the trade, Starbase is nearer to the charges of 30 years in the past. 

The damage price throughout all of SpaceX’s manufacturing services — which incorporates an engine growth and testing web site 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 web site in Redmond, Washington — is 2.28. 

These different services report decrease TRIR charges, although most nonetheless exceed the trade 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 web site. 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, workplaces in Sunnyvale, California, and launch websites at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Area Power Base. 

Former OSHA Chief of Workers Debbie Berkowitz advised TechCrunch through e mail that Starbase’s TRIR “is a crimson flag that there are severe questions of safety that should be addressed.” 

Nevertheless, there’s a debate amongst security professionals about whether or not TRIR is essentially the most dependable metric for assessing and predicting damage charges, notably severe incidents like fatalities, and particularly for small firms. A current 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 retailers together with Reuters have uncovered a whole lot of beforehand unreported employee accidents, together with crushed limbs and one fatality. 

The 2024 damage price at Starbase marks an enchancment to that of the prior 12 months, which topped out at 5.9 accidents per 100 staff 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 price. 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 Business Crew companies to the Worldwide Area Station include specific clauses that permit 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 price will be proof of a security downside, it’s not an computerized set off for motion, and doesn’t fall below the definition of a “main breach of security” of their contracts. 

“NASA interacts continuously 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 advised 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 industrial 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 staff; at Blue Origin’s rocket park on the coast of Florida, the speed is 1.09.