SpaceX Workers Suffered 600 Unreported Injuries, Amputations

Chaya Tong
Sat, November 11, 2023 

Steve Nesius / Reuters

In his race to space, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has had at least 600 unreported workplace injuries since 2014, many that ended in serious injury and amputations, according to Reuters. Musk himself reportedly throws safety to the curb, discouraging workers from wearing yellow safety clothes and even having machinery that was painted in industrial safety yellow repainted as blue or black because he hates bright colors. Four employees said that Musk played with a flamethrower at SpaceX sites proving his disregard for safety. Records show that more than 100 workers got cuts or lacerations, 29 suffered broken bones, 17 had their hands or fingers crushed, nine received head injuries including a skull fracture, and another eight had amputations. SpaceX reportedly says that employees should be responsible for their own safety because the main goal is to reach Mars as fast as possible.

SpaceX chief told employees to 'focus on your job' for humanity's sake after they raised workplace complaints, report says

Marta Biino
Sat, November 11, 2023

SpaceX's COO told employees to "focus on your job" when they raised workplace concerns in 2022.


The COO's response followed an open letter that accused the company of dismissing employee concerns.


A Reuters investigation found that Elon Musk's company has had at least 600 worker injuries since 2014.

SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell told employees in a 2022 email to "focus on your job and the mission of SpaceX — to get humanity to Mars as quickly as possible," after they raised workplace complaints in an open letter, Reuters reported.

Shotwell's email was in response to an open letter written by SpaceX employees that criticized the company's dismissive attitude toward employee concerns and inconsistent enforcement of discipline policies, per the report.

Nine employees were fired for raising complaints in the letter — and eight of those have since filed unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

One major area of concern for employees at the company is the company's safety procedures.

The Reuters investigation found that at least 600 SpaceX workers were injured since 2014 at its facilities across the US, noting that prior to 2021 and 2022, the workplaces often did not submit the required data.

The findings showed that SpaceX's average injury rates at three of the facilities far outpaced that of the wider space industry, which stood at 0.8 injuries per 100 workers in 2022, per the report. The Brownsville, Texas, site had an average injury rate of 4.8 injuries per 100 workers in 2022, Hawthorne, California, was at 1.8, and McGregor, Texas, was at 2.7.

According to the report, among the injuries were nine workers who suffered head injuries, including one traumatic brain injury, and 17 who had their hands or fingers "crushed."

Other issues at the SpaceX facilities were also detailed by current and former workers, including one former welder at the Brownsville site who told Reuters that workers took the stimulant Adderall without prescriptions and that some would sleep in bathrooms at the site.

Others said that employees who were tasked with welding rockets in tents worked in extreme temperatures of up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and were given IV treatments to continue working if they suffered from the heat.

Musk's seemingly relaxed attitude to safety was also apparent in his visits to the facilities, with four employees telling Reuters that Musk would sometimes play with a novelty flamethrower that can shoot a flame over five feet and that he preferred workers not to wear safety yellow due to his dislike of bright colors.

SpaceX's mission "to go to Mars as fast as possible and save humanity permeates every part of the company," Tom Moline, a former SpaceX engineer who was fired after he made workplace complaints, told Reuters.

"The company justifies casting aside anything that could stand in the way of accomplishing that goal, including worker safety," he said.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from Insider, which was made outside of regular working hours.

SpaceX workers face above-average injury rates as Musk prioritizes Mars over safety, report finds

A Reuters investigation found hundreds of previously unreported injuries.

Cheyenne MacDonald
·Weekend Editor
Sat, November 11, 2023 

Veronica Cardenas / reuters

A Reuters investigation into unsafe working conditions at SpaceX has uncovered more than 600 injuries going back to 2014 that have not been publicly reported until now. Current and former employees cited in the report blame CEO Elon Musk’s aggressive deadlines and hatred of bureaucracy, alleging his goal of getting humans to Mars “as fast as possible” has led the company to cut corners and eschew proper protocols.

Injury rates at some SpaceX facilities are much higher than the industry average of .8 injuries or illnesses per 100 workers, Reuters found. At its Brownsville, Texas location, the 2022 injury rate was 4.8 per 100 workers. At the Hawthorne, California manufacturing facility, it was 1.8. In McGregor, Texas, where the company conducts rocket tests, the injury rate was 2.7.

Employees have suffered broken bones, lacerations, crushed fingers, burns, electric shocks and serious head wounds — including one that blinded Brownsville worker Florentino Rios in 2021 and another that left employee Francisco Cabada in a coma since January 2022. At SpaceX’s McGregor site, one worker, Lonnie LeBlanc, was killed in 2014 when wind knocked him off the trailer of an improperly loaded truck. Yet over the years, SpaceX has only paid meager fines as a result of its safety lapses. After LeBlanc’s death, the company settled with OSHA for $7,000, according to Reuters.

Reuters spoke to over two dozen current or former employees, as well as others “with knowledge of SpaceX safety practices.” One SpaceX ex-manager told Reuters that “workers take care of their safety themselves,” and others said employees were even told not to wear bright-colored safety gear because Musk does not like it. SpaceX has also repeatedly failed to submit injury data to regulators for much of its history, according to Reuters.

SpaceX workers reportedly took Adderall and IV fluids, and some slept in the bathroom, to keep up with Elon Musk's deadlines

Grace Kay
Updated Sat, November 11, 2023 

SpaceX workers reportedly put in over 80-hour workweeks in Elon Musk's race to colonize Mars.


A Reuters investigation looked at 600 work injuries at SpaceX from 2014 to now.


Musk has long been known for his "maniacal sense of urgency," his biographer said.

Some SpaceX workers resorted to taking Adderall to keep up with the pace of work at the company's launch facility, and others found themselves falling asleep in the bathroom during long workweeks, a recent Reuters investigation found.

Travis Carson, a former SpaceX worker at the company's facility in Brownsville, Texas, told Reuters some workers took Adderall — a stimulant designed to help people with ADHD improve their focus and concentration levels — without a prescription to keep up with the pace of work. Carson was a welder and later a production supervisor at SpaceX from 2019 to 2022, when he was terminated following an argument with his manager, the publication said.

Four current and former SpaceX workers at the location, including Carson, told the publication that employees would sometimes work over 80 hours a week and some would sleep at the facility to get more work done. Some employees would fall asleep in the bathrooms, the four current and former workers who spoke with Reuters said.

SpaceX welders like Carson, the report said, would also work in tent structures at the launch site, sometimes dealing with temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit while welding rocket machinery. To address the heat issue, workers would receive IV treatments to continue working, Reuters reported.

Elon Musk's rocket company, which employs about 13,000 people, had at least 600 worker injuries over the course of nine years across its facilities, the publication reported. The number does not represent the full number of injuries at SpaceX because the company has not submitted reports to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for any of the years it has been in operation, Reuters said. The injury rate at the facilities for the years that were reported exceeded space-industry averages for the same years, the publication said.

Reuters launched an investigation into SpaceX workplace injuries.Joe Raedle/Getty Images

In interviews with over 36 people, Reuters wrote that some current and former workers said the injuries pointed to Musk's breakneck pace for the company. The billionaire has long been pushing for SpaceX to build a rocket allowing humans to one day travel to Mars.

Tom Moline, an ex-SpaceX engineer, told Reuters that he was one of a handful of employees fired after they brought forth complaints about SpaceX's work environment.

Four current employees told Reuters Musk himself had even contributed to some of the safety concerns at SpaceX by toying with the company's flamethrower on-site, as well as through his aversion to bright colors that are sometimes used for safety reasons. Three ex-SpaceX supervisors told the publication Musk would have yellow machinery repainted to black or blue and some workers were told not to wear bright-yellow safety vests when the billionaire was on-site.

A spokesperson for SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment ahead of publication. But the company has responded to OSHA inquiries, saying it's not liable for the worker injuries as the company gives workers safety training, Reuters reported.

Responsible engineers "are ultimately responsible for all aspects of their components and systems," the company said in a response to one OSHA inquiry, according to Reuters.

Reuters' report came after some SpaceX employees wrote an open letter last year criticizing Musk's behavior as a "source of distraction and embarrassment."

Musk has been known to run his companies with high intensity, sometimes calling for work sprints and even sleeping on the factory floor at Tesla.

His biographer, Walter Isaacson, has said the billionaire has a "maniacal sense of urgency" that could frighten some of his workers — a characteristic that Isaacson said was effective 80% of the time and was "problematic" 20% of the time. Ultimately, the biographer said Musk believed empathy at the expense of the larger mission, like colonizing Mars, was a form of "egotism."

SpaceX workers suffered ‘amputations and crushed limbs’ in Musk’s rush to get to Mars

Matthew Field
Fri, November 10, 2023 

In 2022 SpaceX’s injury rate at its facility in Brownsville, Texas, was six times the industry average - VERONICA CARDENAS

SpaceX workers have suffered hundreds of injuries, including amputations and “crushed limbs”, in pursuit of Elon Musk’s goal of reaching Mars, an investigation into the company has claimed.

More than 600 workplace injuries have occurred at the rocket company since 2014, according to Reuters, as well as one previously unreported death.

The injuries included 100 “cuts or lacerations”, 29 broken bones or dislocations, 17 “crushed” hands or fingers, and eight accidents that led to amputations.

Former workers claimed Mr Musk’s obsession with reaching Mars came at the expense of workers’ safety training. The report cited more than a dozen current and former SpaceX workers who said there was insufficient training on dangerous equipment.

The accidents included the death of Lonnie LeBlanc, a SpaceX worker and former US marine, in 2014. He was killed when he hit his head on the road after falling from a truck at a SpaceX facility in Texas.

Another severe injury occurred when a part flew off a Raptor engine during testing in January 2022, leaving worker Francisco Cabada in a coma.

In 2016 a worker’s leg was crushed and later amputated while attempting to retrieve a Space rocket that had landed in the Pacific Ocean, according to legal filings.

Reuters obtained logs of accident reports filed by SpaceX with US health and safety regulators. Other incidents were uncovered in legal filings or emergency response records.

While the company is required to submit annual injury data to regulators for its facilities, it failed to update officials over multiple years between 2016 and 2021.

According to data filed with regulators, in 2022, SpaceX’s injury rate at its facility in Brownsville, Texas, was 4.8 injuries or illnesses per hundred workers – six times the industry average of 0.8.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets have been used extensively for Starlink and Nasa launches - SpaceX via Getty Images

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets have been used to launch hundreds of satellites for Mr Musk’s Starlink constellation, undertaken dozens of missions for Nasa and carried crew to the International Space Station.

The company is racing to develop a new superheavy rocket, Starship, which will carry humans to the Moon with a planned mission in 2025.

However, SpaceX’s latest launch test in April ended with the 400ft rocket spiralling out of control before exploding.

Tom Moline, a former SpaceX engineer who was fired from the company after raising complaints over the company’s culture, said the company’s mission to Mars to “save humanity” had left safety a secondary concern.

He said: “The company justifies casting aside anything that could stand in the way of accomplishing that goal, including worker safety.”

In filings with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, SpaceX said it provided staff with extensive safety training, while it also employed “responsible engineers” who had oversight of safety.

Regulators had fined SpaceX a total of just over $50,000 (£41,000) across the safety incidents, according to the report.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

SpaceX Employees Suffer Broken Bones, Head Injuries Due to Company's Disregard of Safety, Report Claims

Passant Rabie
Fri, November 10, 2023

SpaceX is desperate to see its Starship rocket fly again for a second test flight.

SpaceX has undoubtedly cemented its position as a leader in the emerging space industry, but that may have come at a painful price. A shocking new investigation by Reuters documents 600 workplace injuries and one death at Elon Musk’s rocket company, highlighting a dangerous disregard for safety practices for the sake of SpaceX’s ambitious goals.

In its report, Reuters talked to more than a dozen current and former employees and reviewed medical and worker compensation records. The records included reports of more than 100 workers suffering cuts or lacerations, 29 with broken bones or dislocations, 17 whose hands or fingers were “crushed,” and nine with head injuries, including one skull fracture, four concussions and one traumatic brain injury, according to Reuters. The reports also indicated five burns, five electrocutions, eight accidents that led to amputations, and seven eye injuries.

SpaceX is currently focused on launching its Starship megarocket for a second time after its debut flight didn’t go so well. Starship’s inaugural launch ended in a fiery explosion and the rocket has remained grounded ever since pending a safety review. Despite its botched first flight, Musk continued to push for a second test flight within two months of its April launch.

SpaceX is in a rush to launch Starship as it is under contract to use a modified version of its rocket to land humans on the Moon as part of NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions. From there, Musk’s ultimate vision for his company is to land humans on Mars and build a colony on the Red Planet. The SpaceX CEO recently claimed that an uncrewed Starship could land on Mars within the next three to four years.

Musk speaks of his ambitious Mars plans as a way to save humanity and sustain our species beyond Earth, hence the sense of urgency. As a result, Musk’s execution of his space ambitions have leaned towards an aggressive schedule and unrealistic expectations.

SpaceX, therefore, doesn’t waste its time on safety regulations and instead urges that its workers are responsible for protecting themselves, according to the Reuters report. The report cites an incident from 2014 in which a SpaceX employee by the name of Lonnie LeBlanc died at a SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas, while transporting foam insulation. LeBlanc had reportedly offered to sit on top of the insulation because there were no straps to hold down the cargo on the truck while on its way to the hangar.

Another incident took place in January 2022 when a part flew off during pressure testing of a Raptor V2 rocket engine, fracturing the skull of SpaceX employee Francisco Cabada, which resulted in him being in a coma. Employees familiar with the incident told Reuters that the part was discovered to have a flaw but it was not fixed before the testing.

“SpaceX’s idea of safety is: ‘We’ll let you decide what’s safe for you,’ which really means there was no accountability,” Travis Carson, a former Brownsville welder and production supervisor at SpaceX, told Reuters. “That’s a terrible approach to take in industrial environments.”

The Reuters report also highlighted Musk’s personal disregard to safety, with the CEO documented while waving around a flame thrower at the company’s site in Hawthorne and his request to paint over the safety yellow color of machinery to change it to black or blue due to his aversion to bright colors.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

Gizmodo

Elon Musk told SpaceX workers not to wear safety clothes because he doesn't like bright colors: report


Natalie Musumeci,Grace Kay
Fri, November 10, 2023 

SpaceX workers told Reuters that Elon Musk discouraged employees from wearing yellow-colored safety clothes.


The employees said that Musk, the rocket company's founder, doesn't like bright colors.


An investigation by Reuters found that SpaceX has had at least 600 worker injuries since 2014.

SpaceX employees have accused Elon Musk, the rocket company's founder, of being fast and loose when it comes to safety measures.

Four SpaceX workers told Reuters that Musk discouraged employees from wearing yellow-colored clothes for safety purposes because he does not like bright colors.

The employees also told the news outlet that Musk would play around with a novelty flamethrower during visits that the billionaire made to SpaceX sites.

Three former SpaceX supervisors told Reuters that Musk would have machinery painted in industrial safety yellow repainted to black or blue because of he didn't like how it looked. The ex-supervisors also said that some workers were told not to wear yellow safety vests when Musk was on site.

The investigation by Reuters found that SpaceX has had at least 600 previously unreported worker injuries since 2014, including eight accidents that led to amputations.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Friday.

Reuters' report comes after some SpaceX employees wrote an open letter last year criticizing Musk's behavior as a "source of distraction and embarrassment."

Musk has been known to run his companies with a high level of intensity, sometimes calling for work sprints and even sleeping on the factory floor at Tesla.