Josh Welton: There needs to be more accountability against SpaceX

A 2023 report from Reuters has documented at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries at Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX. Getty Images

A Nov. 10 Reuters article by Marisa Taylor highlights a damning investigation into the flippant attitude SpaceX and Elon Musk have towards the well-being of its workforce: Ignoring the rules of reporting accidents; one person dying; another worker in a long-term coma; yet another blinded by a snapped chain; cranes failing from overweight loads; a high number of amputations that were never reported. These are among the 600 incidents that went unreported to the government since 2014. This. Is. Nuts.

The report said welders were forced to work in confined spaces and refused respirators by management. It also mentioned Musk’s habit of walking around using his flame thrower in enclosed spaces and painting over anything in safety yellow because, “Elon doesn’t like bright colors.” The company’s formal excuse was, “We have young workers in a dangerous field, so we should be allowed more injuries.” What?!

Many Musk’eteers will try to tell you the injury numbers aren’t that bad, forgetting that, yes, they are, and that they are based on the few numbers that actually were reported. Do you think SpaceX would be hiding numbers if they were good? Like the 600 unreported injuries mentioned previously?

I’ve also read that in the race to space, you must take chances and cut corners, be aggressive, ignore red tape, and be willing to put your body (life) on the line for “the greater good.” Do you think retired Marine Lonnie LeBlanc’s family and friends wanted to hear that after he was killed on the job? All because SpaceX failed to provide a process or the required tie-downs for a load of insulation. Or how about long-time employee Francisco Cabada, whose skull was split after a known faulty piece flew off during testing? His wife never expected her husband to go into a coma from his job. SpaceX and Musk certainly didn’t care. That lack of care led a family member to start a GoFundMe to help Cabada’s wife and kids survive financially.

Workers were forced on long hours in an unsafe and fast-paced environment, and that’s when mistakes happen. Florentino Rios got smashed with a lifting chain that snapped when a crane operator missed a signal and tried to lift a beam that was already secured in place. With his eye bloody and swollen, the on-site medical staff told him to show up for work the next day. He tried to work, but when he went to the hospital on his own, they told him it was a traumatic eye injury. He lost his eyesight and can no longer drive. Hundreds have had amputations. HUNDREDS.

This report came out right after I’d written about the necessity of industry rules and regulations and what happens when we just trust the people who run these enterprises instead of holding them accountable.

The bottom line is that regulators have turned a blind eye (no pun intended) to SpaceX while they’ve been paid $12 billion from the government. The Reuters article is causing a stir in D.C., hopefully pushing SpaceX to stop acting fast and loose with their employees' lives.

As Dr. Chris Combs once said: “If we are going to continue giving them billions annually in taxpayer dollars, they can’t keep treating workers like disposable meat puppets.”