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A construction worker building a concrete wall at SpaceX\u2019s Starbase site in November was crushed by a large metal support that fell from a crane, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident, TechCrunch has learned.<\/p>\n
The worker, Eduardo Cavazos, filed a previously-unreported lawsuit in November detailing the accident, and is suing SpaceX and one of its contractors for negligence. SpaceX reported the incident to OSHA, and the agency opened a \u201crapid response investigation,\u201d according to Joanna Hawkins, deputy regional director of public affairs.<\/p>\n
Rapid response investigations typically involve OSHA asking an employer for more information before determining if the agency will perform an on-site inspection. Hawkins said OSHA is still waiting for SpaceX\u2019s response to that request.<\/p>\n
This is the second known crane-related accident at Starbase this year that OSHA is probing. The agency also opened an investigation into a crane that collapsed at Starbase in late June<\/a>. It\u2019s still not known if any workers were injured during that accident; neither SpaceX nor Starbase city officials have commented on the collapse<\/a>, which was caught on live-streamed video by LabPadre.<\/p>\n The crane-related accidents are part of a growing list of incidents at the rapidly-expanding launch facility in South Texas as CEO Elon Musk has pushed his company to develop massive rockets that can go to the Moon and Mars<\/p>\n Lawyers for Cavazos, a resident of Cameron County, Texas, filed his lawsuit<\/a> in November just a few days after the accident. They said he was working as a subcontractor of CCC Group, which was hired by SpaceX to construct concrete walls at the Starbase site. On November 15, a crane operator was lifting a \u201cvertical formwork\u201d \u2014 which holds wet concrete in place until it dries \u2014 when one of the long metal supports \u201cdetached\u201d and landed on him, Cavazos\u2019 lawyers claim in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The metal support broke Cavazos\u2019 hip, knee, and tibia, and he suffered other injuries to his neck, head, shoulders, back, and legs. \u201cIn all reasonable probability, [Cavazos] has and\/or will undergo physical therapy, daily medications, pain management treatment, and\/or surgical intervention in an attempt to control the pain caused by the injuries sustained in this incident,\u201d his lawyers wrote in the complaint.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> Cavazos sued both CCC Group and SpaceX for negligence and is seeking unspecified damages. He claims both companies should be held responsible for not verifying the metal support was properly attached, and failing to properly warn workers of this type of hazard on the site, among other alleged safety violations.<\/p>\n Representatives for CCC Group and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. Cavazos\u2019 lawyers declined to comment beyond the contents of the complaint.<\/p>\n Workers have sustained serious injuries at SpaceX\u2019s Starbase facility for years. In 2023, a Reuters report about the safety of Starbase uncovered<\/a> numerous previously-unreported injuries, as well as the fact that an employee died at the South Texas site in 2014 when construction began.<\/p>\n Publicly-available data shows the site continues to be dangerous in comparison to other SpaceX facilities and those run by its rivals.<\/p>\n A TechCrunch analysis<\/a> of OSHA data this past July found Starbase had a Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of around 4.27 injuries per 100 workers in 2024. SpaceX\u2019s McGregor, Texas rocket testing facility had a TRIR of 2.48 in 2024, and its Hawthorne, California site measured out at 1.43. The TRIR for aerospace manufacturing as a whole in 2024 was 1.6 injuries per 100 workers.<\/p>\n Former OSHA chief of staff Debbie Berkowitz told TechCrunch at the time that Starbase\u2019s TRIR \u201cis a red flag that there are serious safety issues that need to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n Transparency at Starbase is difficult, too. Companies are supposed to report serious injuries to OSHA within 24 hours if they involve hospitalizations, amputations, or the loss of an eye. While it appears SpaceX did so in the case of Cavazos, OSHA penalized SpaceX $7,000 in early June for not reporting a different injury at Starbase that fell into one of those categories. SpaceX contested the penalty and the two sides reached an undisclosed settlement.<\/p>\n SpaceX has been building out Starbase for more than a decade, but the company has big plans to expand the facility in the coming years. It\u2019s currently constructing a $250 million, 700,000-square-foot rocket factory called \u201cGigabay\u201d that it expects to finish by the end of 2026. The company has said<\/a> it could be used to make as many as 1,000 Starship rockets per year.<\/p>\n The pressure has only been mounting on SpaceX, too. Acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy recently chastised the company for not moving quickly enough to return astronauts to the Moon, after<\/a> Musk called lunar missions \u201ca distraction\u201d from Mars. Duffy suggested NASA may opt to use rockets from Jeff Bezos\u2019 space company Blue Origin to land people on the Moon before China, which is expected to attempt the feat in 2029.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nA broken hip, knee, and tibia<\/h2>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nStarbase\u2019s safety record<\/h2>\n