One windy night at Elon Musk鈥檚 SpaceX facility in McGregor, Texas, Lonnie LeBlanc and his co-workers realized they had a problem.
They needed to transport foam insulation to the rocket company鈥檚 main hangar but had no straps to secure the cargo. LeBlanc, a relatively new employee, offered a solution to hold down the load: He sat on it.
After the truck drove away, a gust blew LeBlanc and the insulation off the trailer, slamming him headfirst into the pavement. LeBlanc, 38, had retired nine months earlier from the U.S. Marine Corps. He was pronounced dead from head trauma at the scene.
Federal inspectors with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) later determined that SpaceX had failed to protect LeBlanc from a clear hazard, noting the gravity and severity of the violation. LeBlanc鈥檚 co-workers told OSHA that SpaceX had no convenient access to tie-downs and no process or oversight for handling such loads. SpaceX acknowledged the problems, and the agency instructed the company to make seven specific safety improvements, including more training and equipment, according to the inspection report.
It was hardly the last serious accident at SpaceX. Since LeBlanc鈥檚 death in June 2014, which hasn鈥檛 been previously reported, Musk鈥檚 rocket company has disregarded worker-safety regulations and standard practices at its inherently dangerous rocket and satellite facilities nationwide, with workers paying a heavy price, a Reuters investigation found. Through interviews and government records, the news organization documented at least 600 injuries of SpaceX workers since 2014.
Many were serious or disabling. 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 鈥渃rushed,鈥 and nine with head injuries, including one skull fracture, four concussions and one traumatic brain injury. The cases also included five burns, five electrocutions, eight accidents that led to amputations, 12 injuries involving multiple unspecified body parts, and seven workers with eye injuries. Others were relatively minor, including more than 170 reports of strains or sprains.
Current and former employees said such injuries reflect a chaotic workplace where often under-trained and overtired staff routinely skipped basic safety procedures as they raced to meet Musk鈥檚 aggressive deadlines for space missions. SpaceX, founded by Musk more than two decades ago, takes the stance that workers are responsible for protecting themselves, according to more than a dozen current and former employees, including a former senior executive.
Musk himself at times appeared cavalier about safety on visits to SpaceX sites: Four employees said he sometimes played with a novelty flamethrower and discouraged workers from wearing safety yellow because he dislikes bright colours.
The lax safety culture, more than a dozen current and former employees said, stems in part from Musk鈥檚 disdain for perceived bureaucracy and a belief inside SpaceX that it鈥檚 leading an urgent quest to create a refuge in space from a dying Earth.
鈥淓lon鈥檚 concept that SpaceX is on this mission to go to Mars as fast as possible and save humanity permeates every part of the company,鈥 said Tom Moline, a former SpaceX senior avionics engineer who was among a group of employees fired after raising workplace complaints. 鈥淭he company justifies casting aside anything that could stand in the way of accomplishing that goal, including worker safety.鈥
One severe injury in January 2022 resulted from a series of safety failures that illustrate systemic problems at SpaceX, according to eight former SpaceX employees familiar with the accident. In that case, a part flew off during pressure testing of a Raptor V2 rocket engine 鈥 fracturing the skull of employee Francisco Cabada and putting him in a coma.
The sources told Reuters that senior managers at the Hawthorne, California site were repeatedly warned about the dangers of rushing the engine鈥檚 development, along with inadequate training of staff and testing of components. The part that failed and struck the worker had a flaw that was discovered, but not fixed, before the testing, two of the employees said.
Cabada鈥檚 wife told Reuters the company has ignored the family鈥檚 attempts to find out why he wasn鈥檛 protected. 鈥淚t would have been nice to get a call from Elon Musk,鈥 Ydy Cabada said. 鈥淏ut I guess workers are just disposable to them.鈥
In all, Reuters interviewed more than three dozen people with knowledge of SpaceX safety practices, including more than two dozen current or former employees. Many of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concerns about career or legal repercussions.
SpaceX did not respond to questions from Reuters and a detailed description of this article鈥檚 findings.
The more than 600 SpaceX injuries Reuters documented represent only a portion of the total case count, a figure that is not publicly available. OSHA has required companies to report their total number of injuries annually since 2016, but SpaceX facilities failed to submit reports for most of those years.
About two-thirds of the injuries Reuters uncovered came in years when SpaceX did not report that annual data, which OSHA collects to help prioritize on-site inspections of potentially dangerous workplaces.
Reuters unearthed details about the 600-plus injuries by examining court documents in worker lawsuits, employee medical records, state workers鈥 compensation claims and emergency-call records. The news agency also obtained, through public records requests, internal SpaceX injury logs that the company turned over to federal and state safety inspectors following serious safety incidents. Such logs are rarely made public. Regulators require companies to keep the records, which include descriptions of individual injuries, and to produce them upon request.
After years of failing to report annual injury-and-illness statistics to regulators, some SpaceX sites started filing the data in 2021 or 2022. The data for 2022, which are more complete, reveal injury rates at three major SpaceX industrial facilities that far exceeded the space-industry average.
The 2022 injury rate at the company鈥檚 manufacturing-and-launch facility near Brownsville, Texas, was 4.8 injuries or illnesses per 100 workers 鈥 six times higher than the space-industry average of 0.8. Its rocket-testing facility in McGregor, Texas, where LeBlanc died, had a rate of 2.7, more than three times the average. The rate at its Hawthorne, California, manufacturing facility was more than double the average at 1.8 injuries per 100 workers. The company鈥檚 facility in Redmond, Washington, had a rate of 0.8, the same as the industry average.
Two other SpaceX facilities in Florida, at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, could not be compared to the industry average in 2022. Kennedy didn鈥檛 report injury data that year. And the company labelled Cape Canaveral as part of a different industry subcategory for which the government doesn鈥檛 calculate an average rate.
The Kennedy site did report injury data for 2016, the first year it was required to do so 鈥 but hasn鈥檛 reported since. For that year, the facility reported data amounting to an injury rate of 21.5 injuries per 100 workers, about 27 times the industry average. The facility employed only 50 people at the time; it had just taken over a launch pad from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Sixteen of those workers were injured, SpaceX reported. By 2021, employment at Kennedy had grown to more than 1,100 workers, NASA said. (See related story below on how Reuters analyzed SpaceX鈥檚 safety record.)
A dozen worker-safety experts said SpaceX鈥檚 poor safety record underscores the perils of working in the lightly regulated and fast-expanding U.S. space industry. Other major space companies have also failed to report annual injury data to OSHA in some recent years.
Reuters reviewed state and federal safety violation records on SpaceX and found no sanctions for its data-reporting failures. For safety violations that inspectors found after SpaceX worker accidents, state and federal regulators levied only small fines, typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
In a written response to questions from Reuters, OSHA did not comment on SpaceX鈥檚 worker safety record or its enforcement decisions involving the company. The agency did not address why it never cited SpaceX for failing to report injury data for many years, saying it would be 鈥渦nfair to draw a conclusion鈥 because it didn鈥檛 know 鈥渢he specifics.鈥 Reuters documented the safety reporting lapses using the agency鈥檚 own records.
The agency did say it has recently increased inspections of companies generally and issued more of its stiffest penalties in egregious cases.
California OSHA, a state-run workplace safety regulator, did not comment in response to Reuters鈥 questions.
NASA said it has paid SpaceX US$11.8 billion to date as a private space contractor. The agency did not comment on the company鈥檚 safety record but said it has the option of enforcing contract provisions that require SpaceX to 鈥渉ave a robust and effective safety program and culture.鈥
SpaceX has defended its safety practices in written responses to OSHA and CalOSHA. In response to an inquiry into the Cabada accident, SpaceX argued to CalOSHA that it shouldn鈥檛 be held responsible for such injuries because it provides extensive safety training and the malfunction was not reasonably foreseeable. Accountability for such part failures and any resulting injuries falls instead on a cadre of employees known as 鈥渞esponsible engineers,鈥 or REs, the company wrote.
鈥淩Es are ultimately responsible for all aspects of their components and systems,鈥 including safety, the company wrote. 鈥淧ut simply, the RE is the delegated SpaceX 谤别辫谤别蝉别苍迟补迟颈惫别.鈥
Safety specialists dismissed SpaceX鈥檚 contention that it can off-load the company鈥檚 duty to ensure worker safety to specific engineers it employs. Jordan Barab, who served as an OSHA deputy assistant secretary between 2009 and 2017, called the notion 鈥渓udicrous.鈥
OSHA told Reuters that employers, not designated employees, are responsible for ensuring a hazard-free workplace.
Travis Carson, a former Brownsville welder and production supervisor, said SpaceX generally left staffers in charge of their own safety, with little training or oversight.
鈥SpaceX鈥檚 idea of safety is: 鈥榃e鈥檒l let you decide what鈥檚 safe for you,鈥 which really means there was no accountability,鈥 said Carson, who has worked for more than two decades in dangerous jobs such as building submarines. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a terrible approach to take in industrial environments.鈥
'NO ACCOUNTABILITY'
Since Musk co-founded SpaceX in 2002, his free-wheeling entrepreneurism has proved a powerful draw for young skilled workers. Some SpaceX employees described eagerly joining the company as it outpaced competitors and offered perks including in-house medical clinics and private company stock that has shot up in value. The company, which employs 13,000 workers, had an estimated value of US$150 billion as of earlier this year. Musk has a 42% stake and 79% of the company鈥檚 voting power, according to a company filing.
SpaceX has achieved major breakthroughs. It was the first private company to send humans into orbit. Its Starlink unit is now the world鈥檚 largest satellite operator. Competitors including Jeff Bezos鈥 Blue Origin have struggled to keep pace with SpaceX鈥檚 reusable rockets, which have slashed launch costs.
Some SpaceX engineers say they relish collaborating with creative coworkers in an environment with little bureaucracy.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a certain amount of red tape that SpaceX avoids, which allows it to move faster鈥 than NASA or private competitors, said Chris Cunnington, a former engineer in McGregor, Texas. He said he believed SpaceX struck a good balance between speed and safety.
Other current and former employees at the company鈥檚 Brownsville site, which had the highest 2022 injury rate, said the company鈥檚 disdain for structured processes came at a high cost to workers.
SpaceX started building its Brownsville site in 2014, and it has since become the epicenter of Musk鈥檚 Mars mission. The facility employs more than 1,600 workers on the Texas-Mexico border and combines manufacturing, testing and launching. It鈥檚 the base of SpaceX鈥檚 Starship program, a project aiming to build cheaper rockets faster.
Brownsville managers, many of them in their 20s, worked grueling hours trying to meet Musk鈥檚 deadlines, according to six current or former employees familiar with the site鈥檚 operations, including Moline and Carson. Some workers slept overnight at the facility at times so they could work more than 80 hours a week, according to four of those employees.
Carson worked at the Brownsville site as a welder in 2019 and 2020 and returned as a production supervisor in 2021 and 2022. He said some employees took Adderall, the stimulant typically used to treat attention-deficit disorder, without a prescription. Others fell asleep in bathrooms, said Carson and three other current or former Brownsville workers.
To speed work and cut costs, SpaceX started manufacturing rockets in tents next to an undeveloped Gulf of Mexico beach. Workers welded rocket parts up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, often in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the SpaceX workers said. When overcome by heat, they were given IV fluids and sent back to work.
When high winds disrupted the work, supervisors shut the tents, closing off ventilation that is essential for safe welding, according to the six current and former workers. OSHA warns that welding stainless steel can generate a highly toxic, cancer-causing dust. The agency told Reuters it requires companies to assess the danger of such environments through air sampling and to implement a 鈥渞espiratory protection program鈥 when needed. One former welder, Phillip Fruge, said he asked managers for respirators commonly used to protect welders鈥 lungs, but they weren鈥檛 provided.
鈥淲e could see the clouds of the dust filling the tent,鈥 Fruge recalled. 鈥淓veryone was just breathing it in, day after day.鈥
Carson said he pressed superiors for better safety measures but was ignored. He recalled stepping into the interior of a rocket under construction in 2021 on his first day as a supervisor. Another manager, working 20 feet above him, carelessly dropped a nearly 100-pound hoist, barely missing Carson.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 like a firing offence at other places, but not at SpaceX,鈥 Carson said. 鈥淭hey needed bodies, and Elon needed stuff done.鈥
Carson himself eventually was fired in January 2022 after getting into a scuffle with a boss. Carson, who is African American, said he shoved the manager, a younger man, because he had repeatedly called Carson 鈥渂oy,鈥 despite Carson鈥檚 requests that he stop. 鈥淏oy鈥 is widely considered a racial epithet by Americans when used to refer to a Black man. The supervisor, who could not be reached for comment, was not disciplined, according to Carson. Reuters could not independently confirm how SpaceX handled the incident.
SpaceX sometimes rushed to hire workers and regularly failed to properly train or equip new recruits, more than a dozen current and former employees said. Workers with no experience, for instance, were handed welding tools without training, they said. Four of these employees, who were managers fresh out of college, described making tough calls on the safety of dangerous activities with little guidance.
In November 2021, two Brownsville technicians were moving square steel tubing weighing 500 pounds, using a crane with a lifting magnet, according to OSHA inspection records. The tubing fell and crushed a worker鈥檚 hand because the crane was only designed to hoist 300 pounds, OSHA concluded.
The employee, whose name was redacted in the inspection report the agency gave Reuters, required long-term treatment after surgery, including the partial amputation of the worker鈥檚 ring finger, according to the report. The agency faulted the company for failing to ensure employees tested whether the crane could lift the load. SpaceX appealed the resulting US$43,506 fine and got it knocked down to US$8,701 after agreeing to remedy the worker-safety problems identified in the report.
Florentino Rios suffered a severe eye injury at SpaceX鈥檚 Brownsville site one summer night in 2021, as he worked about 25 feet off the ground attaching two beams to a launch pad. A crane operator missed a hand signal from Rios and mistakenly tried to move the beams after they were fixed in place, Rios said in an interview. That error caused a chain connecting the crane to the beams to snap and strike Rios in the face. Another worker who was present confirmed Rios鈥 account.
The team should have had walkie-talkies, Rios said, and had previously asked management for better lighting.
As blood trickled down his face, Rios inched along a beam to a platform where he was lowered down, he said. SpaceX employees who examined him at an on-site medical clinic told him he could return to work on the next shift, although he still couldn鈥檛 see well, said his attorney, Richard Hinojosa. Reuters could not independently confirm the SpaceX medical clinic鈥檚 assessment.
Rios went to the hospital that night. A medical scan revealed a traumatic injury in his swollen left eye, according to medical and workers鈥 compensation records reviewed by Reuters. He continued to work anyway for a few days. When he sought further treatment, doctors told him he had lost vision in the eye and was legally blind, the records show.
Rios, 55, said he can no longer drive or work construction. He sued SpaceX alleging its negligence caused the injury by failing to implement or follow worker-safety procedures. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 safe,鈥 Rios said, adding that management never addressed the problems.
The company, in court records, argued that Rios鈥 own negligence was to blame. The case is ongoing.
鈥淚 used to be someone who didn鈥檛 like sitting around,鈥 said Rios. 鈥淚 worked day and night to give my children what they needed. And now, I can鈥檛.鈥
On Jan. 18 of last year, part of a Raptor V2 engine broke away during pressure testing at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California. The part, a fuel-controller assembly cover, careened into the head of Cabada, a SpaceX technician. Nearly two years later, the father of three young children remains in a coma with a hole in his skull, family members said.
The accident generated news last year but little has emerged until now about the causes. The incident stemmed from several safety lapses at the Hawthorne site, according to Reuters interviews with eight former SpaceX employees familiar with the incident and the testing preparations.
Two of the employees said the mishap resulted in part from a simple mistake: An engineer started the test when Cabada was still too close to the engine and unprotected from explosions or flying debris.
Senior managers were repeatedly warned for at least a year before the accident that pressure-testing crews were not following standard worker-safety protocols, such as providing protective barriers or clearing personnel from the testing area, according to a former employee familiar with the matter. Such testing should be conducted with a 鈥渂oom box鈥 covering the whole engine to protect workers, the employee said. At one point, managers rejected a new training program, written and proposed by pressure-testing staff, on the grounds that it would cause delays, according to the source and a document reviewed by Reuters.
Another key contributing factor: SpaceX senior managers, in the months leading up to the accident, had instructed engineers to end or limit the testing of individual rocket parts before they are assembled into an engine, two staffers said. The managers were reacting to Musk鈥檚 demands for faster progress on the Raptor engine program, the workers said.
The team normally would have conducted more extensive testing on the cover that malfunctioned and struck Cabada, they said.
The limited testing nonetheless revealed a potentially dangerous flaw in the cover, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The component was redesigned to correct the problem, they said, but the new part wasn鈥檛 ready before the pressure testing that hurt Cabada. Reuters could not determine the precise nature of the flaw.
SpaceX鈥檚 rejection of a more rigorous training program, its moves to limit testing, and the discovery of the cover鈥檚 defect before the accident haven鈥檛 been previously reported.
In a written response to CalOSHA鈥檚 inspection, SpaceX said it had conducted ample analysis and testing of the part before it failed.
More than a dozen current and former workers said SpaceX鈥檚 willingness to cut corners and skip some worker safeguards has helped keep it well ahead of competitors and score lucrative government contracts. SpaceX last year surpassed Boeing to become NASA鈥檚 second-largest vendor.
The company also boosts development speed through a structure that gives managers high levels of autonomy but raises safety risks, the dozen current and former SpaceX workers said. The company is split into three teams: engineering, manufacturing, and testing. The engineering leadership includes the 鈥渞esponsible engineers鈥 SpaceX designates as accountable for safety in manufacturing. But those engineers have little control of other teams, including the one that stress-tests the engines and parts they develop, according to two staffers with knowledge of the matter.
In the case of the test that injured Cabada, this loose structure meant the testing team never coordinated with the responsible engineer team, the workers said.
After the Cabada accident, CalOSHA inspectors detailed other safety lapses. One employee involved in the pressure checks told them that the company generally didn鈥檛 do full safety inspections before such testing, agency records show. Another said the engine should have undergone more testing 鈥渨ithout personnel around,鈥 according to the records.
SpaceX pushed back on the agency鈥檚 finding that the company failed to protect Cabada, the records show. The company blamed a particular responsible engineer, who it said was accountable for the safety of the defective cover 鈥渢hrough the lifecycle of development, testing and production.鈥 SpaceX fired the engineer and a manager on the same team over the incident, according to three employees with knowledge of the situation.
Cabada鈥檚 wife, Ydy, said SpaceX hasn鈥檛 responded to the family鈥檚 attempts to find out how he was injured. Michael Sanchez, a Los Angeles attorney representing her, said the company has never answered his inquiries, including a March 2022 certified letter requesting a copy of any surveillance footage of the accident and advising SpaceX to preserve any other relevant records. Ydy Cabada has considered a lawsuit but has not filed one.
鈥SpaceX has not returned a single call,鈥 Sanchez said.
Francisco鈥檚 sister, Evelyn Cabada, said the accident devastated the family. In addition to the severe head injury, she said, her brother caught pneumonia and meningitis in the hospital.
Ydy Cabada said the family still holds out hope he鈥檒l emerge from the coma.
鈥淭he doctors keep saying nothing has changed,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檒l take a miracle for him to get out of that bed.鈥
Musk is well-known as a hands-on manager. He was directly involved in handing down sometimes unrealistic deadlines, said current and former employees. Musk鈥檚 heavy involvement in scheduling resulted in 鈥渟ignificantly more unsafe working conditions than would have existed otherwise,鈥 said Moline, the engineer.
One former SpaceX executive defended Musk, saying he would listen to employees who were willing to go 鈥渢oe-to-toe鈥 with him on safety issues and took them seriously.
Another former executive said Musk cared about his workers and was bothered when they got hurt, but that safety was not one of Musk's priorities. Musk, the ex-manager said, thought that 鈥渨orkers take care of their safety themselves.鈥
This former executive said that top company officials knew its injury rates ran high but attributed the problem to employing a largely young workforce in a dangerous industry. SpaceX leaders also believed the company shouldn鈥檛 be held to the same standard as competitors because SpaceX oversees more missions and manufacturing, the two former executives said.
That attitude is a red flag that a company is rationalizing a fundamentally unsafe environment, according to four worker-safety experts interviewed by Reuters, including Barab, the former OSHA deputy assistant secretary.
鈥SpaceX shouldn鈥檛 be exempt from protecting workers from being injured or killed,鈥 Barab said, 鈥渏ust because they鈥檙e doing innovative work.鈥
Four SpaceX employees told Reuters they were disturbed by Musk鈥檚 habit of playing with a flamethrower when he visited the SpaceX site in Hawthorne. The device was marketed to the public in 2018 as a US$500 novelty item by Musk鈥檚 tunnel-building firm, the Boring Company. Videos posted online show it can shoot a thick flame more than five feet long. Boring later renamed the device the 鈥淣ot-A-Flamethrower鈥 amid reports of confiscations by authorities.
For years, Musk and his deputies found it 鈥渉ilarious鈥 to wave the flamethrower around, firing it near other people and giggling 鈥渓ike they were in middle school,鈥 one engineer said. Musk tweeted in 2018 that the flamethrower was 鈥済uaranteed to liven up any party!鈥 At SpaceX, Musk played with the device in close-quarters office settings, said the engineer, who at one point feared Musk would set someone鈥檚 hair on fire.
Musk also became known in California and Texas for ordering machinery that was painted in industrial safety yellow to be repainted black or blue because of his aversion to bright colors, according to three former SpaceX supervisors. Managers also sometimes told workers to avoid wearing safety-yellow vests around Musk, or to replace yellow safety tape with red, the supervisors said.
Workers often walked too close to engine-testing and rocket-building facilities because the company failed to cordon off areas or put up warning signs, said Paige Holland-Thielen, a former operations and automation engineer in Hawthorne.
鈥淥ne time I walked out the door of my building, and there was a giant crane there,鈥 she recalled. 鈥淎 bunch of people in hard hats started screaming at me to get back inside.鈥
Holland-Thielen and Moline, who also worked in Hawthorne, were among nine workers fired in the summer of 2022 after raising workplace complaints in an open letter that was ultimately signed by hundreds of employees. The letter criticized Musk鈥檚 flippant social-media responses to sexual-harassment allegations against him, which he denied. It also criticized a management culture of dismissing employee concerns and unevenly enforcing discipline policies. Eight workers who drafted the letter have since filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against SpaceX alleging unfair labor practices.
Moline said SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell told him he was being fired for distracting workers from getting to Mars. 鈥淧lease focus on your job and the mission of SpaceX 鈥 to get humanity to Mars as quickly as possible,鈥 Shotwell told him and Holland-Thielen, among others, in an email reviewed by Reuters.
Shotwell did not respond to a request for comment.
SpaceX has faced few consequences from safety regulators for its failure to report annual safety data and to protect workers in incidents reviewed by federal and state inspectors, agency records show.
OSHA and CalOSHA have fined the billionaire鈥檚 rocket company a total of US$50,836 for violations stemming from one worker鈥檚 death and seven serious safety incidents, regulatory records show.
OSHA did not comment on the modest penalties that resulted from inspections of SpaceX.
SpaceX鈥檚 history of injuries and regulatory run-ins in California underscores the limits of worker-safety regulation. Fines are capped by law and pose little deterrent for major companies, experts in U.S. worker safety regulation said. Federal and state regulators also suffer from chronic understaffing of inspectors, they said. OSHA did not address questions about staffing levels but said it 鈥渇ocuses its resources on hazardous workplaces.鈥
CalOSHA levied a fine of US$18,475 for the violation that resulted in Cabada鈥檚 skull fracture. SpaceX unsuccessfully disputed the agency鈥檚 classification of the violation as 鈥渟erious鈥 and appealed the penalty as excessive, asking for a reduction to US$475.
In another case, CalOSHA never inspected the company following a serious accident resulting in a leg amputation. But the agency may not have known the accident happened at all: A Reuters review of agency documents indicated it had no record of the 2016 incident.
Federal and state law require companies to immediately report all employee deaths, amputations and injuries resulting in hospital admissions. It isn鈥檛 clear whether SpaceX ever reported the injury. Neither the company nor CalOSHA commented on why the agency had no report on it.
If SpaceX didn鈥檛 report the case, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think they have any excuse,鈥 said Ann Rosenthal, a former OSHA associate solicitor, who handled legal matters for the agency until 2018. The incident resulted in Steven Trollinger鈥檚 leg being crushed during a mission to recover a rocket that landed in the Pacific Ocean, according to records in a lawsuit Trollinger filed. The accident occurred when he and other SpaceX employees were being transferred between two vessels. SpaceX knew that one of the vessels wasn鈥檛 properly equipped with a transfer platform designed to ensure the workers鈥 safety, but proceeded anyway, Trollinger鈥檚 lawsuit alleges.
Trollinger, who declined to comment, settled with SpaceX for an undisclosed sum, court records show.
In inspections following two other serious California injuries 鈥 the amputation of two fingers in 2017 and a serious knee injury in 2021 鈥 CalOSHA levied fines of US$750 and US$5,060, respectively. When a worker鈥檚 finger was amputated this March, inspectors took no action and did not visit the site, records show.
After Texas worker Lonnie LeBlanc fell off a trailer and died in 2014, OSHA came to what it called an informal settlement with the company after inspectors found the safety lapses, OSHA records show. The settlement allowed SpaceX to pay a US$7,000 fine.
LeBlanc鈥檚 brother, Chris Weimer, and an uncle, Ron Weimer, said the family didn鈥檛 know that OSHA had investigated the death and found violations until Reuters told them.
Ron Weimer said the hazardous nature of rocket-building is no excuse for his nephew鈥檚 death.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a way to do dangerous work,鈥 he said, 鈥渨ithout people dying.鈥
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METHODOLOGY
Safety at SpaceX: How Reuters analyzed workplace injuries
Reuters documented at least 600 injuries at SpaceX through a variety of public records, including the company鈥檚 own injury logs at three facilities that were inspected by regulators.
Such logs are normally kept private by companies, but they became public record when SpaceX was required to turn them over to inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and a state-run affiliate in California, CalOSHA. Reuters obtained these logs, which include short descriptions of each injury in a given year, through public records requests. They covered between one and five years at each of the three facilities, in Hawthorne, California; Cape Canaveral, Florida; and Redmond, Washington.
Reuters also documented injuries through other public records and employee interviews at those three sites and three other facilities, in Brownsville, Texas; McGregor, Texas; and at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The records included court documents in worker lawsuits, employee medical records, state workers鈥 compensation claims, and emergency calls.
The six total sites were chosen because they are SpaceX鈥檚 biggest industrial facilities, engaged in manufacturing, testing or rocket launching.
Reuters also calculated annual injury rates for 2022 for some of these facilities using the annual data they have been required to file with OSHA since 2016. Reuters calculated the facilities鈥 rates using an OSHA formula that uses the total hours worked at a company to estimate an annual injury rate per 100 full-time workers. The data used to calculate the SpaceX rates also included a small number of illnesses.
Before 2021 and 2022, SpaceX facilities usually did not submit the required data, with each site failing to report it for between four and six years.
When comparing these rates to the space-industry average, the news organization used an estimated average injury-and-illness rate produced annually by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS derives industry averages by collecting a representative sample of data from companies in a given industry; it cannot by law release data from individual firms surveyed.
Like OSHA, the BLS is a division of the U.S. Labor Department, and both agencies collect injury data from companies under the same guidelines. OSHA advises companies to use the BLS average in their industry as a benchmark for their worker-safety performance.
SpaceX, when filing injury data to the OSHA, classifies itself as part of the 鈥済uided missile and space vehicle manufacturing鈥 industry, a regulatory data-collection category that is a subset of the larger aerospace industry. The BLS estimated the average injury-and-illness rate for that industry was 0.8 per 100 workers in 2022, a rate that has not changed much in recent years.
For one facility, in Cape Canaveral, SpaceX listed a different aerospace industry subcategory for 2022: 鈥渢ransportation by spacecraft, freight.鈥 That facility couldn鈥檛 be compared to an industry average because the BLS doesn鈥檛 produce one for that subcategory. Another facility, at Kennedy Space Center, did not report annual injury data to OSHA for 2022.
(Reporting by Marisa Taylor; additional reporting by Joey Roulette; editing by Michele Gershberg and Brian Thevenot)
A $2.14-billion federal loan for an Ottawa-based satellite operator has Canadian politicians arguing about whether American billionaire Elon Musk poses a national security risk.
Twenty-seven year 麻豆影视 reporter and anchor John Vennavally-Rao shares his story of what it was like to have an ostomy bag as part of his health-care battle. 'I鈥檓 grateful for what it did to extend my life,' he writes in a personal column for CTVNews.ca.
Donald Trump returned to North Carolina on Saturday, stumping in the southern battleground state with direct appeals to women, claiming he would be a better champion for them than U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is vying to become the first female president.
Looking after an adult with severe autism can be a full-time job. Ask any parent who has a child severely affected by autism spectrum disorder 鈥 it鈥檚 a job that can get more difficult as the child becomes an adult.
A new study is adding to emerging research showing that exposure to metals such as cadmium, uranium and copper may also be associated with the leading cause of death worldwide, cardiovascular disease.
Unusual flippered feet are making their way into the Saint Lawrence River this weekend. Led by underwater explorer and filmmaker Nathalie Lasselin, volunteer divers are combing the riverbed near Beauharnois in Mont茅r茅gie to remove hundreds of tires that have been polluting the aquatic environment for decades.
A body has been found in the vicinity where a woman went missing on the Ottawa River near Pembroke, Ont. while kayaking Tuesday night, according to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
For some young people, a popular method for getting a quick high is by misusing laughing gas 鈥 and lately, that鈥檚 in the form of nitrous oxide from products sold by the company Galaxy Gas.
A man is facing numerous drug trafficking charges after Dufferin OPP seized a large assortment of drugs and weapons in Orangeville earlier this week.
A man is facing numerous drug trafficking charges after Dufferin OPP seized a large assortment of drugs and weapons in Orangeville earlier this week.
The London Police Service (LPS) is currently investigating a suspicious death in the east end.
A body has been found in the vicinity where a woman went missing on the Ottawa River near Pembroke, Ont. while kayaking Tuesday night, according to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
A Calgary family on a trip to Chinook Centre experienced the lows and highs last week, when a stuffie went missing.
Unusual flippered feet are making their way into the Saint Lawrence River this weekend. Led by underwater explorer and filmmaker Nathalie Lasselin, volunteer divers are combing the riverbed near Beauharnois in Mont茅r茅gie to remove hundreds of tires that have been polluting the aquatic environment for decades.
The 75-year-old building, formerly the Waskesiu Chamber of Commerce building, was relocated to the Parks Canada compound on the edge of the townsite.
Donald Trump returned to North Carolina on Saturday, stumping in the southern battleground state with direct appeals to women, claiming he would be a better champion for them than U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is vying to become the first female president.
Sheba, a 50-year-old seal at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in southwest England, has far surpassed the average lifespan for seals and could be the oldest in captivity in the world.
The more Chelsea Walsh talked to the eccentric fellow American who seemed to pop up in every square and cobblestone street of Ukraine's capital, the more she got creeped out.
Specialist divers surveying the wreckage of the US$40 million superyacht that sank off Sicily in August, killing seven people including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, have asked for heightened security to guard the vessel, over concerns that sensitive data locked in its safes may interest foreign governments, multiple sources told CNN.
Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire on Saturday as rescue crews in Beirut searched the rubble of an apartment building that was leveled by an Israeli airstrike that killed at least 37 people, including one of the militant group's senior leaders as well as women and children.
A $2.14-billion federal loan for an Ottawa-based satellite operator has Canadian politicians arguing about whether American billionaire Elon Musk poses a national security risk.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says close to 45,000 Canadians are in Lebanon, months after warning there is no guarantee Ottawa can evacuate them if the situation deteriorates further.
The federal firearm buyback program has cost taxpayers nearly $67.2 million since it was announced in 2020, but it still hasn't collected a single gun.
A new study is adding to emerging research showing that exposure to metals such as cadmium, uranium and copper may also be associated with the leading cause of death worldwide, cardiovascular disease.
For some young people, a popular method for getting a quick high is by misusing laughing gas 鈥 and lately, that鈥檚 in the form of nitrous oxide from products sold by the company Galaxy Gas.
Looking after an adult with severe autism can be a full-time job. Ask any parent who has a child severely affected by autism spectrum disorder 鈥 it鈥檚 a job that can get more difficult as the child becomes an adult.
If something looks too good to be true, it might be. That's the message from Saskatchewan horticulturists after customers have come into their stores hoping to buy purple apple trees this month.
The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy.
Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
Kathryn Crosby, who appeared in such movies as 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad', 'Anatomy of a Murder,' and 'Operation Mad Ball' before marrying famed singer and Oscar-winning actor Bing Crosby, has died. She was 90.fff
'Saturday Night Live' will have a slew of famous faces to help kick off its historic 50th season when the show returns later this month.
The death of the Tragically Hip鈥檚 lead singer Gord Downie united fans across Canada in their grief, but in many ways pulled his bandmates apart.
It is not a great time to be a coffee drinker. In general, coffee bean prices are the highest they've been in more than a decade.
The maker of the popular party game Cards Against Humanity is accusing Elon Musk's SpaceX of trespassing on and damaging a plot of vacant land the company owns in Texas.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says a recall of Nutrabolics brand Feed Me Vegan Real Food Protein & Oats bars due to undeclared milk has been expanded.
Tattoos are becoming more common in today's society and, as a result, appear to be more acceptable in the workplace than they used to be.
The end of the day 鈥 when school, extracurricular activities and homework are (hopefully) finally done 鈥 is the window that many kids have for downtime. It can be a struggle to convince them not to go on their phones.
While slang may come and go, experts say the phenomenon behind them, which constantly churns out brand-new bon mots, is as old as language itself.
Kiefer Sherwood spent several nights last spring chasing Quinn Hughes around the ice and generally pestering the Vancouver Canucks.
Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.
Andre De Grasse, fresh off of winning Olympic gold in the 4x100-metre rally in Paris 2024, has been in Toronto for the latest few weeks as part of the Toronto International Film Festival.
General Motors (GM) has issued a recall for 38,000 vehicles for safety risks related to a software glitch, Transport Canada reported in a notice on Wednesday.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has accused Tesla CEO Elon Musk of 'remotely disabling' his Cybertruck, which had been sent to the frontline of Russia's war in Ukraine.
An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.
Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.
Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.
An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.
They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A six-year-old girl who was reported missing in northern B.C. earlier this week remains unaccounted for, and "significant resources from across the province" have joined in the search, police said Saturday.
A sea lion swam free after a rescue team disentangled it near Vancouver Island earlier this week.
A man who was found dead behind a curling rink in Nanaimo, B.C., earlier this month was the victim of a homicide, police confirmed.
A 23-year-old man has been arrested after one person was found dead at a home in Richmond Hill Saturday morning.
Toronto police say they have now identified a third person who they believe was involved in a shooting that left two men dead in North York earlier this week.
A man is fighting for his life in hospital a day after a vehicle smashed into several others in and around an intersection in Milton before flipping over.
The water coming from your taps might be a bit murky Saturday, but Calgary remains on schedule to end all water restrictions on Sunday.
A Calgary family on a trip to Chinook Centre experienced the lows and highs last week, when a stuffie went missing.
An estimated 8,000 volunteers mobilized across the city Saturday as the Calgary Food Bank went door-to-door collecting food and funds.
A potential move to LeBreton Flats for the Ottawa Senators is still years away, but questions and concerns are already being raised about what to do with the Canadian Tire Centre.
The Taste of Wellington 2024 wraps up Saturday in Ottawa.
A body has been found in the vicinity where a woman went missing on the Ottawa River near Pembroke, Ont. while kayaking Tuesday night, according to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
Montrealers can get used to taking a stroll on several car-free streets during the summer in the years to come thanks to a new commitment from the city.
Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.
Unusual flippered feet are making their way into the Saint Lawrence River this weekend. Led by underwater explorer and filmmaker Nathalie Lasselin, volunteer divers are combing the riverbed near Beauharnois in Mont茅r茅gie to remove hundreds of tires that have been polluting the aquatic environment for decades.
The Edmonton Police Service is looking for a person of interest in connection with a suspicious fire that destroyed a multi-unit building and damaged several townhomes earlier this week.
Tattoos are becoming more common in today's society and, as a result, appear to be more acceptable in the workplace than they used to be.
Two people have been charged after a daylight shooting in Red Deer earlier this week.
Halifax Regional Police warned the public of a series of high-value thefts targeting retail stores Friday.
Pictou County District RCMP is investigating a fatal crash that occurred in Thorburn, N.S., Saturday.
A proposal for additional parking to accommodate upgrades at the Irving Pulp & Paper Mill in Saint John, N.B., would add an estimated 500 parking spots at Wolastoq Park.
The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.
A herd of dogs paid visit to patients and residents at Riverview Health Centre during an annual event that lifts spirits and wags tails.
While slang may come and go, experts say the phenomenon behind them, which constantly churns out brand-new bon mots, is as old as language itself.
Fire officials are investigating after a fire completely destroyed the community fridge in the Cathedral neighborhood.
The last two months after losing her daughter Bella have been extremely difficult for Kyla Thomson.
Regina police arrested three youths in connection to a bear mace incident at a Regina high school on Friday.
The Cambridge Professional Fire Fighters鈥 Association held their annual Muscular Dystrophy Boot Drive on Saturday.
Protests were held in front of Kitchener City Hall on Friday, both for and against LGBTQ2S+ inclusive education and queer rights in schools.
Police said the pedestrian, a 52-year-old man, was taken to an out-of-region hospital with life-threatening injuries and the driver of the vehicle failed to remain at the scene.
The 75-year-old building, formerly the Waskesiu Chamber of Commerce building, was relocated to the Parks Canada compound on the edge of the townsite.
Saskatchewan RCMP major crimes unit is investigating after a man鈥檚 body was found on Sweetgrass First Nation.
Heading into Friday's game against the Calgary Stampeders, quarterback Trevor Harris said he and his Saskatchewan Roughriders were "ready to rock."
Ontario鈥檚 police watchdog is investigating after an Ontario Provincial Police officer discharged his firearm at a 36-year-old man in near Moonbeam, Ont., on Friday night.
For some young people, a popular method for getting a quick high is by misusing laughing gas 鈥 and lately, that鈥檚 in the form of nitrous oxide from products sold by the company Galaxy Gas.
An Ontario woman is among the dozens of people who have come forward to allege that they were sexually abused by London-based businessman Mohamed Al Fayed, the former chairman and owner of Harrods.
A motorcyclist has died following a serious collision that took place in London鈥檚 south end on Friday afternoon.
The London Police Service (LPS) is currently investigating a suspicious death in the east end.
The St. Thomas police is asking the public for help locating a missing man.
The Barrie Skateboard Association (BSA) hosted a unique competition at the City's Skate Park on Saturday to celebrate its 25th anniversary, which showcased the park's importance and the growth of skateboarding in the region.
A man is facing numerous drug trafficking charges after Dufferin OPP seized a large assortment of drugs and weapons in Orangeville earlier this week.
One person is in hospital after an e-bike crash in Orillia on Thursday.
The Amherstburg Freedom Museum is celebrating a year of festivities in anticipation of its 50th anniversary in 2025.
The St. Clair College golf teams were successful at the Niagara Knights Invitational tournament on Friday.
A LaSalle high school is celebrating its emerald anniversary this weekend, with everyone who has ever walked its halls invited to return.
A man who was found dead behind a curling rink in Nanaimo, B.C., earlier this month was the victim of a homicide, police confirmed.
A sea lion swam free after a rescue team disentangled it near Vancouver Island earlier this week.
A six-year-old girl who was reported missing in northern B.C. earlier this week remains unaccounted for, and "significant resources from across the province" have joined in the search, police said Saturday.
A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.
The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls 鈥 including one that gave birth to 10 puppies 鈥 from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
Despite the heavy rain, plenty of muscle turned up for United Way鈥檚 annual Pull the Bus fundraiser in Lethbridge Friday.
Lethbridge County has rescinded its fire restriction as a result of the recent cool, wet weathr.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes kicked off the 2024-25 season on a winning note Friday night, defeating the Edmonton Oil Kings 3-1 in a game played at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.
Following an outbreak of COVID-19 on its continuing care floor and just ahead of the flu season, St. Joseph鈥檚 General Hospital in Elliot Lake has opted to re-introduce a universal masking policy until further notice.
A 26-year-old driver from Surrey, B.C., has been charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing death and bodily harm in a crash that killed two youths in northern Ontario last year.
Ontario Provincial Police say three suspects from southern Ontario have been charged and drugs worth $300,000 have been seized following a traffic stop Sept. 16.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester鈥檚 farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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