SpaceX workers usually tend to be injured whereas working at Starbase than any of its different manufacturing amenities, based on 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 larger than the common for comparable house automobile manufacturing outfits and almost thrice larger than aerospace manufacturing as an entire in 2024, based on Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) information launched in Could. That oversized damage fee has continued since 2019, when SpaceX started sharing Starbase damage information with the federal regulator.
Starbase is dwelling to SpaceX’s most bold program: a completely reusable, ultra-heavy-lift rocket referred to as Starship. The corporate has been transferring 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 checks, the corporate made historical past by catching the huge Tremendous Heavy booster with “chopstick” arms hooked up to the launch tower.
The info means that SpaceX’s fast progress comes at a price. And whereas damage charges alone don’t present an entire 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 referred to as Whole Recordable Incident Charge (TRIR) to measure an organization’s security document and examine it to trade friends, like Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance. The publicly out there information has limitations. It doesn’t distinguish between minor accidents like stitches versus critical incidents reminiscent of amputations.
TechCrunch calculated the TRIR based mostly on that information, which incorporates the entire variety of incidents and whole variety of hours labored by SpaceX workers at every website.
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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 an entire. Its TRIR topped out at 4.27 accidents per 100 staff in 2024, when it employed a median of two,690 staff, based on the info submitted to OSHA. Injured Starbase workers had 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 fee 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, based on historic information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (BLS calculates these charges by means of its annual firm surveys, which asks for a similar data 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 fee throughout all of SpaceX’s manufacturing amenities — which incorporates an engine improvement 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 amenities report decrease TRIR charges, although most nonetheless exceed the trade averages. As an example, 2024 information reveals 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 an entire 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 House Power Base.
Former OSHA Chief of Workers Debbie Berkowitz informed TechCrunch by way of electronic mail that Starbase’s TRIR “is a purple flag that there are critical issues of safety that must 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 different measures of security efficiency as a substitute.
Of the 14 OSHA inspections at SpaceX amenities 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 staff in 2023 and 4.8 accidents in 2022. Nevertheless it nonetheless leads amongst SpaceX’s land-based amenities, 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 electronic 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 significant stake in Starship’s improvement. The company is relying on utilizing the rocket to return people to the Moon earlier than the top 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 providers to the Worldwide House Station comprise specific clauses that permit the company to take motion within the case of a significant breach of security, reminiscent of a fatality or a “willful” or “repeat” OSHA violation.
Whereas a persistently excessive TRIR fee may be proof of a security drawback, 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 ceaselessly 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 informed TechCrunch in response to questions in regards to 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 keep a wholesome security tradition.”
Amongst rocket makers with autos 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.
