Elon Musk's SpaceX faces worker safety crisis as it aims for Mars

Robert Markert, a supervisor for years warned SpaceX leaders that a step in the process of retrieving the rocket fairing could “easily cause serious injury or death”. He says he was ignored because “it was the more economical solution,” according to a suit filed earlier this month. A few months later, he lost his job.

Markert is among the two ex employees who have sued SpaceX for wrongful termination according to TechCrunch. At the start of July, the lawsuits were transferred to federal court.

Both suits argue that safety and staff welfare were sacrificed for speed and cost savings. They come whil SpaceX is pushing to prepare its Starship ultra-heavy rocket for NASA and commercial missions and to deploy satellites for its Starlink service, while its Falcon 9 rocket has has launched 87 times this year.

Long hours and fatigue allegedly led to injuries of SpaceX workers

Markert worked at SpaceX for 13 years before his April dismissal. His complaint states that technicians were sometimes compelled to work 15 to 20 days straight in a high-stress setting. When he raised concerns about fatigue, he says supervisors told him “the schedule comes first.” He says this grueling pace led to injuries that staff didn’t dare report..

In the lawsuit, Markert says he urged management to invest in more training and certifications, but was told “there is no time for that and the company would not spend money on it.” He added that without proper training, the risk of mistakes rises.

The second lawsuit was filed by plumber David Lavalle, who joined SpaceX in 2014 and is now 60. He claims the company failed to address a series of work-related injuries, such as a foot fracture, extreme pain in the neck and wrist problems. Fearing retaliation, he did not seek workers’ compensation for all injuries. After he took leave to treat knee pain from gout, he was fired nine days later. Lavalle also alleges older staff were targeted after the company hired 28-year-old Scott Hiler as a senior manager at the end of last year.

Both complaints were originally filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and later removed by the company to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

SpaceX injury rates exceed industry average

Recent reporting by TechCrunch showed SpaceX outpaced other companies in worker injury rates in 2024. The analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration records found the Starbase complex in Texas logged 4.27 injuries per 100 workers last year, nearly triple the aerospace manufacturing average of 1.6 per 100.

Markert, who lives in Los Angeles County, did not specify his work site, though his lawsuit says he worked with ship technicians. OSHA logs show SpaceX’s west coast fairing recovery operations had the highest injury rate, at 7.6 incidents per 100 workers.

At the end of May 2025 Federal Aviation Administration ordered a formal accident probe into a Starship test flight, which went out of control.

The rocket lifted off from Texas and flew farther than the last two tests, which both ended in fiery Atlantic crashes. At that time it made it halfway around the world before spinning out of control and breaking up over the Indian Ocean.

The FAA later confirmed that there were no reported injuries or damage to the public.

The first-stage booster, recycled from a previous flight, also fell apart as it came down over the Gulf of Mexico, but that was expected and approved by regulators.

According to the FAA, debris from both stages fell within the pre-established hazard areas.

Elon Musk wants to run Starship tests faster to help reach Mars, and NASA plans to use Starship to land astronauts on the moon soon.

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