SpaceX worker injury rates at Starbase outpace industry rivals

Boca Chica, Texas – SpaceX’s Starbase facility, the heart of its ambitious Starship program, is reporting significantly higher worker injury rates compared to its other manufacturing sites and the broader aerospace industry, according to a review of company worker safety records by TechCrunch.

The sprawling launch and manufacturing hub in Texas, which recently incorporated as its own city, registered injury rates nearly six times higher than the average for comparable space vehicle-manufacturing operations in 2024. Furthermore, Starbase’s rates were almost three times higher than the overall aerospace manufacturing sector for the same year, as revealed by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data released in May. This elevated injury trend at Starbase has been consistent since 2019, when SpaceX began submitting injury data to federal regulators.

Starbase is central to SpaceX’s most groundbreaking initiative: the fully reusable, ultra-heavy-lift Starship rocket. The company has been pursuing a rapid development and testing schedule to deploy Starship for critical missions, including the launch of Starlink internet satellites and other payloads. Since Starship’s inaugural orbital test in April 2023, SpaceX has conducted eight additional integrated flights, notably achieving historic feats like catching the massive Super Heavy booster with the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms during three of these tests.

The persistent data suggests that this rapid pace of innovation and development at Starbase may be accompanied by significant safety challenges. While injury rates alone do not paint a complete picture of an organization’s safety culture, they offer a rare insight into the working conditions at one of the world’s leading space companies.

Examining the Starbase Safety Data

OSHA utilizes a standardized safety metric known as the Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) to evaluate a company’s safety performance against industry peers such as Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance. While this publicly accessible data has limitations – it does not differentiate between minor injuries and severe incidents like amputations – it provides a crucial comparative benchmark. TechCrunch calculated the TRIR based on the data, which includes the total number of incidents and total hours worked by SpaceX employees at each site.

Starbase stands out within SpaceX’s network and across the industry. In 2024, its TRIR reached 4.27 injuries per 100 workers, with an average of 2,690 employees. This resulted in Starbase employees being unable to perform normal job duties for a combined 3,558 restricted-duty days and 656 lost-time days due to injuries. The U.S. government classifies Starbase as a space vehicle-manufacturing operation, a sector that has seen its injury rate fall from 4.2 injuries per 100 workers in 1994 to 0.7 injuries per 100 workers in 2023, according to historical data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite significant industry-wide improvements in safety processes, Starbase’s rates remain closer to those from three decades ago.

Across all of SpaceX’s manufacturing facilities, including an engine development and testing site in McGregor, Texas; a Starlink satellite-manufacturing complex in Bastrop, Texas; the Falcon rocket complex in Hawthorne, California; and another satellite-manufacturing site in Redmond, Washington, the average TRIR is 2.28. While generally lower than Starbase, most of these facilities still exceed overall industry averages. For example, 2024 TRIR rates were 2.48 at McGregor, 3.49 at Bastrop, 1.43 at Hawthorne, and 2.89 at Redmond. The overall TRIR for aerospace manufacturing in 2024 was 1.6.

Former OSHA chief of staff Debbie Berkowitz stated that Starbase’s TRIR is “a red flag that there are serious safety issues that need to be addressed.” While some safety professionals debate the reliability of TRIR, particularly for small companies and for predicting serious incidents, the consistent high rate is notable.

Of 14 OSHA inspections at SpaceX facilities over the last four years, six were related to accidents and injuries at Starbase, including a partial finger amputation in 2021 and an ongoing investigation into a crane collapse in June 2025. Investigations by other news outlets, including Reuters, have previously reported hundreds of worker injuries, ranging from crushed limbs to one fatality. While the 2024 injury rate at Starbase (4.27) marks an improvement from 2023 (5.9) and 2022 (4.8), it still leads among SpaceX’s land-based facilities, second only to its West Coast booster recovery operations, which recorded a TRIR of 7.6. OSHA confirmed TechCrunch’s calculation of Starbase’s TRIR but did not comment further, and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

NASA’s Engagement and Safety Oversight

NASA holds a substantial stake in the progress of Starship. The agency is relying on this rocket for its ambitious goal of returning humans to the moon within this decade, having committed over $4 billion to SpaceX for two crewed Starship flights to the lunar surface. NASA’s contracts for the Starship lander and SpaceX’s Commercial Crew services to the International Space Station include specific clauses that permit the agency to take action in the event of a major safety breach, such as a fatality or a “willful” or “repeat” OSHA violation. While a consistently high TRIR rate indicates a potential safety issue, it does not automatically trigger action under the contract’s definition of a “major breach of safety.”

A NASA spokesperson emphasized their commitment to safety, stating, “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. 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.” Among active rocket manufacturers, Starbase’s injury rate remains notably higher: United Launch Alliance’s manufacturing facility in Decatur, Alabama, has a TRIR of 1.12 injuries per 100 workers, while Blue Origin’s rocket park in Florida reports a rate of 1.09.