SpaceX staff 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 integrated as its personal Texas metropolis, logged damage charges that have been nearly 6x larger than the typical for comparable area vehicle-manufacturing outfits and practically 3x larger than aerospace manufacturing as an entire in 2024, based on Occupational Security and Health Administration (OSHA) knowledge launched in Might. That oversized damage fee has persevered since 2019, when SpaceX started sharing Starbase damage knowledge with the federal regulator.
Starbase is dwelling to SpaceX’s most bold program: a totally reusable, ultra-heavy-lift rocket referred to as Starship. The corporate has been shifting at a breakneck tempo to deliver Starship on-line to launch Starlink web satellites and different payloads.
Since Starship’s first orbital take a look at 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 speedy progress comes at a price. 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 situations of the world’s main area firm.
Breaking down Starbase numbers
OSHA makes use of a standardized security metric referred to as Complete Recordable Incident Price (TRIR) to measure an organization’s security report and examine it to business friends, like Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance. The publicly accessible knowledge has limitations. It doesn’t distinguish between minor accidents like stitches versus critical incidents equivalent to amputations.
TechCrunch calculated the TRIR primarily based on that knowledge, which incorporates the full variety of incidents and complete variety of hours labored by SpaceX staff 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 business as an entire. Its TRIR topped out at 4.27 accidents per 100 employees in 2024, when it employed a mean of two,690 employees, based on 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 vehicle-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, based on historic knowledge 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 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 amenities — which incorporates an engine growth and testing website in McGregor, Texas; a Starlink satellite-manufacturing advanced in Bastrop, Texas; the Falcon rocket advanced in Hawthorne, California; and one other satellite-manufacturing website in Redmond, Washington — is 2.28.
These different amenities report decrease TRIR charges, although most nonetheless exceed the business averages. As an illustration, 2024 knowledge exhibits TRIR charges of two.48 at McGregor, 3.49 at Bastrop, 1.43 at Hawthorne, 2.89 at Redmond. 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; places of work in Sunnyvale, California; and launch websites at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg House Pressure Base.
Former OSHA chief of workers Debbie Berkowitz advised TechCrunch by way of electronic mail that Starbase’s TRIR “is a red flag that there are serious safety issues that need to be addressed.”
Nevertheless, 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 an alternative.
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 retailers, together with Reuters, have uncovered tons of 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 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 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 House Station comprise specific clauses that enable the company to take motion within the case of a serious breach of security, equivalent to a fatality or a “willful” or “repeat” OSHA violation.
Whereas a persistently excessive TRIR fee may be proof of a security downside, it’s not an automated set off for motion and doesn’t fall below the definition of a “major breach of safety” of their contracts.
“NASA interacts frequently with its partners, including SpaceX, to ensure safety from a mission assurance perspective, and remains in regular contact with the company during normal contract administration,” a NASA spokesperson advised TechCrunch in response to questions concerning the firm’s TRIR. “Safety is paramount to NASA’s mission success. The agency continues to work with all our commercial partners to build and maintain a healthy safety culture.”
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 employees; at Blue Origin’s rocket park on the coast of Florida, the speed is 1.09.
