Lightning struck the launch facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, delaying a SpaceX launch. (@LabPadre, via Storyful)
Washington state occupational safety officials fined Elon Musk’s SpaceX company $3,600 this month after an accident at one of its facilities reportedly resulted in a “near amputation.”
Inspectors with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries have found new safety violations at the company’s Redmond facility, which manufactures satellites for the global Starlink broadband internet network. According to Reuters, the inspections were carried out in December after workers complained of occupational hazards.
Inspection records obtained by the news agency said the SpaceX site lacked a “thorough safety program,” adequate communication of labor rules, and a system to “rectify violations.” The “near amputation” incident occurred after a roll of material fell and crushed the worker’s foot, according to inspectors.
SpaceX managers told state inspectors that this was a one-time incident and the problem had been resolved, Reuters reported.
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People work at the SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, Texas, on August 19, 2023. (Reuters/Veronica G. Cárdenas/File Photo/Reuters Photo)
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report said tests found that employees were not required to wear steel-toed shoes, even though the rolls of material that needed to be loaded into the machines weighed as much as 300 pounds. An agency spokesperson said the violation was serious given the risk of injury from working with such heavy materials.
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SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (Alisha Jusevich/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
According to inspection records seen by Reuters, one employee interviewed by inspectors said the company’s “goal is to do as much as possible in a short amount of time” and that “safety could be overlooked.” It’s sexual,” he said.
The worker who nearly had his leg amputated said the roll-loading machine had been “deliberately set up incorrectly to increase production rates during the material loading stage.”
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SpaceX founder Elon Musk attended a joint event between T-Mobile and SpaceX in Boca Chica Beach, Texas on August 25, 2022. (Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Injured workers also claim that management has not addressed the issue, and, according to Reuters, the company’s safety personnel “have no readability or comprehensive ability to implement a safety plan at the Redmond facility.” I don’t even have one,” he said.
Last year, a Reuters investigation found that Musk’s spaceflight company ignored worker safety regulations and standard practices at its facilities across the country. The report, based on interviews and government records, revealed at least 600 previously unreported injuries to SpaceX employees since 2014.
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National worker safety agencies have fined SpaceX a total of $50,836 for various violations over the past 10 years, according to the report. U.S. worker safety experts said these fines are capped by law, and large companies may have little incentive to comply with safety regulations.
SpaceX did not respond to media inquiries about the findings or workplace safety violations.
Reuters contributed to this report.
