Worker's Death at SpaceX Factory Follows Hundreds of Injuries

[Brenda]

A 25-year-old died last month of “blunt force trauma due to a fall,” part of an injury rate at Starbase that is well above an industry national average.

Around 4 a.m. on May 15, in the 1-year-old South Texas town of Starbase, Jose Luis Bautista, a 25-year-old man from nearby Donna, rode a scissor lift around 50 feet up toward the ceiling of the “Starfactory,” where Elon Musk’s SpaceX makes parts for its Starship rockets. Bautista and other workers with Delta Fabrication and Machine Inc., a contractor out of Daingerfield, Texas, needed to replace metal beams supporting the structure of the factory with new ones.

According to the report, Bautista was attaching himself to another beam when the one he was already secured to started falling. Alvarado told a sheriff’s investigator that he was on the phone when the beam fell, taking Bautista with it. Alvarado further told the investigator that Bautista may have thought the beam was secure because it had anchor bolts already installed on it. Bautista struck the beam on the way down before falling to the concrete factory floor.

Harvey said, per the report, that “he did not know why Jose Luis would have attached himself to the improperly secured beam.” Harvey also said that the bolts on the beam were temporary.

Bautista’s death is the first worker fatality at SpaceX’s South Texas facilities, but there have been numerous injuries there in the last few years. Just among its own employees — not including those working for contractors — SpaceX saw 427 injuries and nine respiratory illnesses between Jan. 6, 2022, and June 10, 2025, according to documents the company filed with OSHA and acquired by the Observer through a records request. These injuries included concussions, second-degree burns, partial finger amputations, hernias, dislocations, crushed hands and broken ribs, legs and ankles.

I used to work in the auto industry, both on the floor and office. This is an astronomical number of serious injuries in a couple of years. And they're obviously trying to blame the injured or dead employees. Shut this fucking company down. No god damned trillionaires should be allowed to profit at the expense of the human work force.

Wait, no fucking trillionaires. Period!

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/workers-death-at-spacex-factory-follows-hundreds-of-injuries/