The SpaceX Starbase industrial complex and rocket launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, US, on Thursday, April 17, 2025.
Mark Felix | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A SpaceX crane collapse at the company’s Starbase, Texas facility on Tuesday has prompted an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency told CNBC in an email.
The crane collapse was captured in a livestream by Lab Padre on YouTube, a SpaceX-focused channel. Clips from Lab Padre were widely shared on social media, including on X, which is owned by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether any SpaceX workers were injured as a result of the incident. Musk and other company executives didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for OSHA told CNBC that more details will be available after the investigation is complete.
SpaceX has a history of workplace injuries that exceed industry average, Reuters previously reported. In 2014, one of the company’s employees, Simon LeBlanc, died on the job due to what OSHA concluded was a failure by the company to protect him from a clear hazard.
Earlier this year, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a Musk-led effort by the Trump administration to slash the size of the federal government, cut OSHA’s resources and shuttered at least 11 of its field offices. Through DOGE, Musk sought to reduce federal agency budgets, personnel and even certain regulations, limiting their ability to investigate and enforce existing laws.
The SpaceX crane collapse followed a string of explosions and other setbacks for the company’s Starship Super Heavy launch vehicle, the largest rocket ever flown, which is key to Musk’s ambition to transport equipment and people to Mars.
Environmental activists in the U.S. and Mexico say those explosions have harmed sensitive habitat, wildlife and marine life. SpaceX said, in posts online, that its activity had not harmed the surrounding area during the most recent explosion on June 18.
Starship was previously expected to play an important part in NASA’s effort to return to the moon. SpaceX had earned more than $20 billion in federal government contracts mostly from the Department of Defense and NASA.
Meanwhile, NASA’s proposed lean budget for the next year has not yet been authorized by Congress and could impact the agency’s business with SpaceX, and shift the focus of its missions.
Musk, who was President Donald Trump’s biggest financial backer, sought to appoint his friend Jared Issacman, a commercial astronaut, to lead NASA under the second Trump administration. Trump withdrew his nomination of Isaacman as the president bickered with Musk in the waning days of the billionaire’s formal involvement with the White House.
