SpaceX did not inspect a recently repaired hydraulic crane before it collapsed at its Starbase, Texas facility last June, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
As a result, the federal safety agency has hit SpaceX with seven “serious” Violations related to the investigation, which opened one day after the crane collapsed. OSHA issued the maximum financial penalty it can impose for six “serious” violations, handing out a combined $115,850 in fines to Elon Musk’s spaceflight company.
OSHA’s investigation is still open according to the agency’s website. It is unclear if any workers were injured in the accident. SpaceX can contest the penalty; The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The fines and violations come as SpaceX is set to ramp up activity at its Starbase facility, driven in part by the race to meet President Donald Trump’s goal of returning astronauts to the Moon by the end of his second term. The company has clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration to do as much as 25 Starships launched in Texas this year. At the same time, they are undergoing a rapid expansion of the launch complex to meet Musk’s big ambitions to build. thousands of Starship rockets every year.
SpaceX has long been plagued by injuries at its South Texas launch complex. Reuters 2023 report found Dozens of injuries previously went unreported — and one worker died — that happened when the facility was built over the past decade. TechCrunch’s analysis of last year’s OSHA data show SpaceX has a higher injury rate at its Starbase site than at any other facility managed by the company, or its industry peers.
Accidents keep happening. In December, an employee of a SpaceX subcontractor filed a lawsuit against SpaceX after he was allegedly crushed by a large metal support that fell from a crane. OSHA also investigates accidents that, as TechCrunch first reported.
At the crane collapsed in the midst of a new OSHA penalty occurring on June 24, 2025. SpaceX employees at the Starbase test site clean up debris from The Starship explosion was just four days earlier. Footage captured by LabPadre, which broadcasts a live stream from the Starbase site, shows the crane buckling under the weight of a large chunk of the exploding Starship.
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According to a recent citation posted to OSHA’s website, one employee used crane Grove RT9150E to lift the debris while others used excavator buckets for inspection, in the hope of determining the cause of the explosion.
Crane Grove was recently repaired, according to quoteand returned to SpaceX “without the employer ensuring that the repair meets the manufacturer’s criteria through inspection by a qualified person.” It is not clear why the crane was repaired, but another quote stated that the Grove RT9150E crane at the test site had a computer that would not start until “several attempts” were made.
OSHA claims SpaceX didn’t do it or didn’t document it monthly supervision in the Grove crane, and that not yet checked “in the past 12 months.” SpaceX also does not conduct monthly inspections of the wire ropes used to move debris, according to OSHA. And OSHA claimed the rigging equipment used at the site lost the markings provided by the manufacturer must describe the “safe working load.”
As part of the investigation, OSHA also found that an employee had been operating a 90-ton Tadano crawler crane to move debris at the test site with an expired certificate from the National Commission on Crane Operator Certification.