cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2688916

Reuters documented at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries at Musk’s rocket company: crushed limbs, amputations, electrocutions, head and eye wounds and one death. SpaceX employees say they’re paying the price for the billionaire’s push to colonize space at breakneck speed.

Through interviews and government records, Reuters documented at least 600 injuries of SpaceX workers since 2014. Many were serious or disabling. The records included reports of more than 100 workers suffering cuts or lacerations, 29 with broken bones or dislocations, 17 whose hands or fingers were “crushed,” and nine with head injuries, including one skull fracture, four concussions and one traumatic brain injury. The cases also included five burns, five electrocutions, eight accidents that led to amputations, 12 injuries involving multiple unspecified body parts, and seven workers with eye injuries.

SpaceX, founded by Musk more than two decades ago, takes the stance that workers are responsible for protecting themselves, according to more than a dozen current and former employees, including a former senior executive.

Musk himself at times appeared cavalier about safety on visits to SpaceX sites: Four employees said he sometimes played with a novelty flamethrower and discouraged workers from wearing safety yellow because he dislikes bright colors.

  • UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Rush to Mars

    Is that even a thing still? I thought SpaceX had long abandoned this hype piece.

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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      2 months ago

      Yeah yikes. If it’s this bad already can you imagine the headlines about whatever poor bastards actually embark on the quest?

      I’m sure we all kinda hope Musk himself goes so he can aggrandize himself as the first guy on Mars, and we can all promptly just leave him there and forget about him forever…if they make it at all, and if the crew doesn’t arrange an “accident” of their own that sees him jettisoned for being sus.