Starbase damage charges outpace rivals as SpaceX chases its Mars moonshot

SpaceX workers usually tend to be injured whereas working at Starbase than any of its different manufacturing services, in accordance with firm employee security data reviewed by TechCrunch.

Starbase, a sprawling launch-and-manufacturing web site that lately integrated as its personal Texas metropolis, logged damage charges nearly six instances increased than the common for comparable house car manufacturing outfits and almost 3 times increased than aerospace manufacturing as an entire in 2024, in accordance with Occupational Security and Well being Administration (OSHA) knowledge launched in Might. That oversized damage fee has endured since 2019, when SpaceX started sharing Starbase damage knowledge with the federal regulator. 

Starbase is house to SpaceX’s most bold program: a totally reusable, ultra-heavy-lift rocket referred to as Starship. The corporate has been transferring at a breakneck tempo to carry 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 further built-in flights. Throughout three of these assessments, the corporate made historical past by catching the huge Tremendous Heavy booster with “chopstick” arms hooked up to the launch tower. 

The information means that SpaceX’s fast progress comes at a value. 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 situations 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 Price (TRIR) to measure an organization’s security file and examine it to business 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 reminiscent of amputations. 

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

Starbase, which performs a central position 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 median of two,690 employees, in accordance with the information submitted to OSHA. Injured Starbase workers 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 assessed by the U.S. authorities as an area car 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, in accordance with 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 types.) 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 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 business averages. As an 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 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 Employees Debbie Berkowitz informed TechCrunch through e mail that Starbase’s TRIR “is a pink flag that there are severe 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, notably severe incidents like fatalities, and particularly for small corporations. A latest paper on TRIR questioned its statistical validity and advocated that organizations use various measures of security efficiency as an alternative. 

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 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 12 months, 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 services, and is second total 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 concerning that location’s damage fee. SpaceX didn’t reply to request for remark.   

NASA’s stake

NASA has a significant stake in Starship’s growth. 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 companies to the Worldwide House Station include explicit clauses that enable 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 might be proof of a security downside, it isn’t an computerized set off for motion, and doesn’t fall underneath the definition of a “main breach of security” of their contracts. 

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