SpaceX’s injury rates continued to exceed the industry average in 2023, with some facilities reporting worsening conditions, according to Reuters’ analysis of data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Notably, the Brownsville, Texas, site recorded an injury rate of 5.9 per 100 workers, a significant increase from 4.8 in 2022 and well above the space industry’s average of 0.8.
“NASA should be concerned about the quality of the work,” said David Michaels, a former OSHA administrator who is now a professor at The George Washington University. High injury rates, he added, can be “an indicator of poor production quality.”
This high rate of injuries, which includes severe accidents and a fatality, has raised concerns among SpaceX’s clients, including NASA, which has awarded the company contracts worth at least $11.8 billion. Despite the troubling figures, SpaceX did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on these latest findings.
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