Injury Rates at SpaceX Soar Above Industry Norms
At SpaceX's manufacturing facility in Brownsville, Texas, the injury rate is more than seven times the industry average.
Dafuq they doing over there
SpaceX are on track to launch 130 times this year. The industry competitors launch 6-12 times per year.
I suspect the higher incident rate is related, since you will need to manufacture, roll out, etc.. much more often.
The article also talks about most the incidents being in booster recovery. Only 2 Space competitors do that,
Blue Origins sub orbital booster always returned to launch site and at best managed monthly launch. This rocket hasn't launched in more than a year.
Rocket Lab perform ocean recovery but only launched 11 times last year and only recovered the booster twice.
So its hard to really compare
Still, the specific injuries sound gruesome, like amputations and crushing. And sure, to a degree this just happens if you do something often enough, but we have safety standards for a reason, it's wild to me that this isn't something where safety is paramount.
After all, think about all the product that could get damaged! 😑
Elongated Muskrat runs his companies like the cyberpunk villain he aspires to be. Wouldn’t be surprised if all the employees at his companies signed over their physical bodies and implants as part of an NDA because he lives in a fantasy land where it’s 2019 rain-drenched fire-spewing-tower L.A.
Of course Elon Musk doesn't actually run SpaceX
This image gives me Subnautica vibes.
Musk is trying to make the US labor board unconstitutional. The reason why is outrageously transparent based on this article. Fuck that monster.
A previous Reuters investigation found that the approximately 600 reported injuries in 2022 included crushed limbs, cuts, burns, eye injuries, electrocutions, amputations, and serious head injuries, according to the news outlet, which noted that data from prior years are either incomplete or non-existent.
Oh my lanta.
This tells me a lot not just about SpaceX but also "industry norms."
TRW got us to from Pioneer to the fucking moon without shitting on unions or massively injuring their workers.
Elon takes his parents blood money and buys Tom Mueller… yet people act like it’s the second coming of Jesus while the same engineers now suffer for his ego.
All so a single trust fund baby can claim land in LEO.
Injuries such as guy got stuck in the rocket during countdown, guy minding his own business when rocket part fell on him and it was still burning. Probably things like that... parking at the wrong place during horizontal engine tests, etc.
SpaceX also launches more rockets than any other launch provider. What is the injury rate per mass-to-orbit? The Reuters report smells suspiciously like a hit piece.
RATE. Injury rate per person.
The only thing that matters is how many injuries happen per person. That's the whole point. Every company could increase output by sacrificing worker's health, but we as society strongly condemn that because that's truly fucked up.
We should frame things in terms of injuries per worker per stock price. If our shareholders are happy who cares if Tommy's dad only has one leg now?
/s
"Rate" doesn't necessarily mean per capita. It could easily mean an averaged total over time.
However, the linked Reuters source does clarify that the referenced "rate" is injury per 100 employees. So your intuition was correct.
Still, it's shitty journalism to leave that ambiguity. The Reuters article that it cites is far better.
You gotta keep in mind that spacex is more mass manufacturing things compared to legacy space.
They're aiming for 144 launches this year, that's 144 2nd stages. A second stage is being manufactured every 2.5 days.
Hundreds, if not thousands of satellites.
A better comparison would be to other manufacturers of this scale and complexity. Not someone who launches 2 rockets this years, maybe.
It's well known within the industry that SpaceX forces their employees to work excessive hours and in unsafe conditions. This is not a hit piece, and it's weird for you say that at all.
Pretty much all of Elon Musks companies have the same issue with overworked, underpaid employees.
What is the injury rate per mass-to-orbit?
Weird metric. So if SpaceX puts 10 tons in orbit and injures 10 people that should basically count the same as if ULA puts 1 ton in orbit and injures 1?
So if SpaceX puts 10 tons in orbit and injures 10 people that should basically count the same as if ULA puts 1 ton in orbit and injures 1?
That's more or less what I was getting at. Is the metric that weird?
Building off of your example, suppose SpaceX puts 15 tons in orbit and injures 10 people, while ULA puts 1 tons in orbit and injures 1. If one wanted to launch 30 tons to orbit, what would the best decision be?
Your account smells suspiciously of bootlicking.
I was about to check their history but just looking at the name is a dead giveaway.
It is adjusted per capita, anything else is pretty meaningless.
The situation doesn’t appear to be improving. In 2023, the SpaceX facility in Brownsville, Texas, for example, reported an injury rate of 5.9 per 100 workers, a notable increase from 4.8 in 2022. Comparatively, the industry average remains significantly lower at 0.8 injuries per 100 workers, according to figures provided by Reuters.
Comparatively, the industry average remains significantly lower at 0.8 injuries per 100 workers
I wonder if this number contains only work injuries, or also other work related accidents such as murdered whistleblowers etc?
How about injuries per billion dollar CEO worth? Or injuries per roadster in orbit (Spoiler alert: SpaceX is really bad in this category)?
Lol the injuries are not due to rocket launches, they are due to manufacturing. So your metric has absolutely no meaning whatsoever.
It seems like the metrics are for their whole operations, as the article highlights booster recoveries with most injuries.
That said, the tons to orbit are meaningless when we're talking about injuries per capita
Of course they are due to manufacturing (not launches), but SpaceX also manufactures and refurbishes more rockets than other launch providers. How is the metric meaningless?
The "hit piece" that reports another company being run like absolute shit from the guy that is running a car company like shit, a space company like shit, a tube company that closed down and couldn't even come close to what was promised.
Am I missing something? Maybe it's a hit piece because the guy is a piece...of shit.
This idiot thinks space junk is more important than human lives.