— TheSpaceEngineer (@mcrs987) May 17, 2026 SpaceX did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment. Questionable safety at SpaceX This is far from the first workplace incident to occur at Starbase. In January, a contractor sued SpaceX for negligence, claiming he was struck by a piece of falling debris while working in an elevator shaft at the site in April 2024. SpaceX has also been sued over incidents at its other facilities, including its manufacturing and testing sites in Hawthorne, California, and McGregor, Texas. At Hawthorne, a mishap during a Raptor V2 pressure engine test in January 2022 allegedly left an integration technician in a coma. Two years later, his wife filed a negligence lawsuit. Just last week, a tanker truck driver sued SpaceX after allegedly being “doused in liquid methane” while offloading fuel at the McGregor site in June 2024. This is a small sample of numerous accidents that have taken place across SpaceX’s facilities. A 2023 Reuters investigation documented at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries at the company, including crushed limbs, amputations, electrocutions, head and eye wounds, and one death. Employees are more likely to be injured at Starbase than any of the company’s other manufacturing sites, according to 2024 OSHA data reviewed by TechCrunch. That year, the company town logged injury rates nearly six times higher than the average for comparable space vehicle-manufacturing facilities and nearly three times higher than aerospace manufacturing as a whole, TechCrunch reported. Starship V3 launch delayed Last week, SpaceX was planning to launch Starship V3, the latest and greatest iteration of its super heavy-lift rocket, from Starbase no earlier than Tuesday. On Sunday, the company pushed the launch to Wednesday, then bumped it back to Thursday on Wednesday evening. SpaceX has not provided an explanation for the delays, so it’s unclear whether they could be related to Friday’s death. Regardless, the timing of this incident could be highly consequential for SpaceX as the company faces renewed scrutiny over its safety practices ahead of its most important launch yet and its blockbuster public offering. Explore more on these topics