The media learned about a sharp increase in the number of injuries to SpaceX workers at work

Since 2014, SpaceX has had at least 600 previously unreported employee injuries, according to investigations Reuters. According to the workers themselves, in this way they are paying for the ambitions of the head of the corporation, Elon Musk.

During this period, more than 100 workers are said to have suffered cuts or lacerations, 29 suffered fractures or dislocations, and another nine suffered head injuries. One of the workers, who suffered a head injury, died in 2014, the agency found out. Federal OSHA inspectors later determined that SpaceX failed to maintain adequate safety measures. As a result of the regulator’s settlement agreement with SpaceX, the latter paid a fine of $7,000.

Current and former employees told Reuters the injuries “reflect the chaos” in the workplace caused by undertrained and overworked staff trying to meet Musk’s deadlines for space missions. The billionaire allegedly takes the position that workers are responsible for their own protection. Four employees also said that the billionaire himself is dismissive of safety precautions at work. So he allegedly “sometimes played” with the new flamethrower, and also asked the workers not to wear protective yellow clothing because he did not like bright colors.

“Elon’s vision that SpaceX is on a mission to get to Mars as quickly as possible and save humanity permeates every part of the company. The company justifies abandoning anything that could interfere with achieving this goal, including worker safety,” said former SpaceX senior avionics engineer Tom Moline.

The injury rate at the company’s manufacturing and launch complex near Brownsville, Texas, was 4.8 injuries or illnesses per 100 workers in 2022, six times the space industry average of 0.8, the agency said. Its McGregor, Texas, test site, where a worker died in 2014, had a rate of 2.7, and its Hawthorne, California, facility had a rate of 1.8. However, SpaceX facilities did not report injury data annually as required by regulators, and there were no penalties for failure to report data.

Job safety experts interviewed by Reuters said SpaceX’s poor safety record underscored the dangers of working in the loosely regulated and rapidly evolving U.S. space industry.