--- title: "SpaceX Employees Getting Wounded at Incredible Rates" description: "People who work at SpaceX facilities are injured on the job way more often than industry averages, a new review has found." date: "2024-04-27" modified: "2024-04-27" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-employees-wounded-rates" categories: - "Space" - "SpaceX" tags: - "safety" - "SpaceX" - "the digest" - "workers" --- # SpaceX Employees Getting Wounded at Incredible Rates ![People who work at SpaceX facilities are injured on the job way more often than industry averages, a new review has found.]() *\Image: Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* ## Space Wrecks Working in manufacturing always comes with [occupational hazards](), but according to a new review, those who work at SpaceX's facilities experience injuries at rates far higher than industry averages. Per a [*Reuters* analysis](), SpaceX's launch-and-manufacturing facilities had between five and nine times as many injuries as would be typical last year. The news wire's analysis came from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's 2023 newly released records from SpaceX, the most comprehensive yet from the Elon Musk-owned company that builds rockets for NASA. In 2022, *Reuters* notes, the company only gave injury reports from five facilities, and before that, it didn't provide any records of the kind at all, which makes it hard to parse just how longstanding the issue is. At SpaceX's facility in Brownsville, Texas, for instance, the company reported 5.9 injuries per 100 workers in 2023, up from 4.8 in 2022. A unit that retrieves its spent rocket boosters from the Pacific Ocean, meanwhile, had 7.6 injuries per 100 employees, which is more than nine times the industry average of 0.8. ## Quality Control Building off *Reuters*' prior reporting on more than 600 [previously undisclosed]() SpaceX worker injuries from last year, these figures are troubling enough on their own. But they also, as former OSHA administrator David Michaels told the outlet, could be "an indicator of poor production quality." Now an occupational health professor at the George Washington University, Michaels told *Reuters* that "NASA should be concerned about the quality of the work" if SpaceX's injury rates are this high. In its breakdown, the outlet found huge differentails in safety between its facilities. Even its East Coast rocket recovery team, which [serves the same purpose]() as its West Coast counterpart by retrieving rocket boosters from the Atlantic, had significantly fewer injuries per 100 workers than both that team and the Brownsville factory's, while its Redmond, Washington factory came in with just 1.5 injuries per 100 workers, the lowest of the bunch. https://twitter.com/ReutersScience/status/1782521874867531822 Curiously, it appears, per an automated [X-formerly-Twitter bot]() that posts space jobs, that the company has also just opened a new position for an [environmental health and safety engineer]() in Texas — so maybe the company is looking to fix its safety problems after all. When asked about these figures, SpaceX, [naturally](), did not respond to *Reuters*' request for comment. **More on SpaceX:** [*NASA Launches Astronauts After Finding Crack in Spacecraft During Countdown*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()