Spacex workers injury rates at Starbase Outpace industry

Spacex employees are likely to develop Starbase from any other manufacturing facilities, according to workers safety records in the company that was reviewed by Techcrunch.

Starbase, a sprawling operating and manufacturing site, which was recently integrated as Texas City, who recorded almost six times higher injuries than average for similar spacecraft manufacturing data approximately three times higher than the manufacture of space space as a whole in 2024, according to OSHA security and health management data (OSHA) in May. This huge injury has continued since 2019, when Spacex began sharing Starbase’s injury data with the federal organizer.

Starbase is home to the most ambitious Spacex: a fully reusable missile, which is a very low missile called Starship. The company is moving at a pace outside to bring Starship online to launch Starlink Internet Satellites and other loads.

since The first tropical test for Starship In April 2023, Spacex tried eight additional integrated trips. During three of these tests, The company made history By capturing a massive heavy supporter with “sticks” arms connected to the launch tower.

The data indicates that the rapid progress of Spacex comes at a cost. Although injuries alone do not provide a complete picture of the safety culture in Starbase, it provides a rare glimpse into the world’s leading space company working.

Small the numbers of the stars base

OSHA uses a unified safety scale called the total registration rate (TIR) to measure the company’s safety record and compare it to industry peers, such as Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance. Data available to the public have restrictions. It does not distinguish between minor injuries such as stitches against serious accidents such as amputation.

TECHRUNCH calculated Tirir based on that data, which includes the total number of accidents and the total number of hours that SpaceX employees work on each site.

Starbase, who plays a major role in the Elon Musk mission, is the CEO of Spacex to make life multi -line, strange in the company and across the industry as a whole. Trir was topped with a 4.27 -injured strike per 100 workers in 2024, when 2690 workers used average, according to the data provided to OSHA. Starbase staff with the employees of the normal job duties for a total of 3558 days were unable to serve, as well as 656 days lost as injuries made them unable to work at all.

Starbase was classified by the United States government as a spacecraft manufacturing process. The rate of infection in this sector has decreased significantly Since 1994Decrease from 4.2 injuries per 100 workers 0.7 Injury per 100 workers in 2023According to historical data from the work statistics office. (BLS calculates these prices through its annual surveys of the company, which requires the same information in OSHA’s workers injury models. But despite the main changes in safety operations throughout the industry, Starbase is closer to 30 years.

The rate of infection in all manufacturing facilities in SpaceX – which includes the McGregor engine development and testing site, Texas; Bastrop satellite manufacturing complex, Texas; Falcon missile complex in Hotoren, California; Another satellite manufacturing site in Redmond, Washington – 2.28.

These other facilities are reports of low Trir rates, although most of them still exceed the average industry. For example, 2024 data shows Tir 2.48 in McGREGOR, 3.49 in Bastrop, 1.43 in Hawthorne, 2.89 at RedMond. 2024 TIRS to manufacture space as a whole is 1.6.

Spacex also runs many unprocessed sites, including the battleship operations off both coasts and offices in Sunnyvale, California, and launch sites at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Former OSHA Chief of Staff, Deby Berkovic, told the e -mail that Trir from Starbase “is a red sign of serious safety problems that need to be addressed.”

However, there is a discussion between safety professionals about whether Tirr is the most reliable scale for assessing and predicting infection rates, especially serious accidents such as deaths, especially for small companies. Modern paper In Tir, they questioned their statistical validity and called for organizations to use alternative measures to perform safety instead.

Among the 14 OSHA inspections in SpaceX facilities over the past four years, six accidents and injuries have participated in Starbase. This includes a partial finger amputation in 2021 and the crane collapsed in June 2025. The last inspection is still ongoing. Investigations conducted by other news means Including Reuters They discovered hundreds of previously reported workers’ injuries, including the crushed ends and one.

The infection rate 2024 in Starbase is an improvement in the previous year, which is issued by 5.9 injuries per 100 workers in 2023 and 4.8 injuries in 2022. But it still performs between the ground installations in SpaceX, which is only the second in the western coast recovery operations, which number 7.6.

OSHA has confirmed that the Techcrunch account for Tir’s Tirir via email, but it did not answer the questions related to the rate of injury to this site. Spacex did not respond to the suspension request.

NASA share

NASA has a large stake in the development of Starsp. The agency relies on the use of the missile to return humans to the moon before the end of this decade, which is so Pay more than 4 billion dollars To Spacex Airlines championship to the surface of the moon.

Both contract to Lander Starship The SpaceX contract contains the services of the commercial staff to the international space station that allows the agency to take action in a major breach of safety, such as deaths or osha violation of “deliberate” or “repeated” OSHA.

While the highly high TRIR rate can be evidence of safety problem, it is not an automatic operator, and does not fall Under the definition From a “great breach of safety” in their contracts.

“NASA reacts frequently with its partners, including Spacex, to ensure safety from the mission guarantee perspective, and is still in regular contact with the company while managing the normal contract,” a NASA spokesman told Techcrunch. “Safety is very important to the success of NASA’s mission. The agency continues to work with all our commercial partners to build and maintain a health safety culture.”

Among the missile makers who have vehicles under operation, Starbase still tops the package: at the ULA manufacturing facility in Decater, Alabama, 1.12 injuries per 100 workers; In Blue Origin’s Rocket Park on the Florida coast, the average is 1.09.