A worker died at SpaceX’s Starbase launch site in South Texas on Friday, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has launched an investigation.
THE The San Antonio Express-News reported Monday that the unidentified victim died around 4:17 A.M. local time on May 15, citing OSHA and local officials. The Wall Street Journal later reported that the county sheriff confirmed in the outlet that a worker died. OSHA confirmed to TechCrunch that it is investigating the apparent accident.
Representatives for the nearby Brownsville police and fire departments did not respond to requests for comment. SpaceX and the fledgling Starbase City did not respond to requests for comment.
The circumstances of the worker’s death were not immediately clear. OSHA told TechCrunch it won’t release more information until its investigation is complete, which could take months.
The death comes just days before the first scheduled launch of SpaceX’s upgraded Starship rocket. Elon Musk’s aerospace company is also reportedly publishing the detailed prospectus for its initial public offering this week, which is expected to be the largest ever when that transaction goes through next month.
SpaceX has long dealt with worker safety issues at its Starbase site, which handles Starship prototype launches and is an active manufacturing zone.
In 2025, TechCrunch analyzed OSHA data and determined that the Texas launch site had an injury rate that far exceeded that of industry competitors and was the most dangerous of SpaceX’s construction sites. A 2023 Research by Reuters revealed dozens of previously unreported injuries and one worker death in 2014 at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas test site.
In January, OSHA hit SpaceX with seven “serious” safety violations, including for failing to properly inspect a crane before it collapsed at Starbase last June. The agency fined SpaceX the maximum for six of those seven violations, totaling $115,850. SpaceX is contesting those sanctions, federal filings show.
The company has been hit with multiple lawsuits related to injuries it suffered at Starbase in recent years. In December, an employee of one of SpaceX’s subcontractors sued after being crushed by a large metal support that fell from a crane. The worker, Eduardo Cavazos, suffered a fractured hip, knee and tibia, and OSHA launched a “rapid response investigation,” as TechCrunch first reported in December.
OSHA has since closed that rapid response investigation without taking any punitive action, according to a TechCrunch public records request. And the lawsuit was recently dropped because his employer, the subcontractor, provides workers’ compensation insurance that prevents the company from being sued, according to Cavazos’ attorney.
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