STARBASE — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into the death of a worker at SpaceX's Starbase launch site in South Texas, which occurred at around 4:17 a.m. local time on May 15, 2026. OSHA said it will not release additional information until the investigation is complete, a process that could take months. Representatives for SpaceX, the city of Starbase, and the Brownsville police and fire departments did not respond to requests for comment.

The death occurred a few days before the first planned launch of SpaceX's upgraded Starship rocket. The Starbase site handles Starship prototype launches and is an active construction zone.

In January 2026, OSHA cited SpaceX for seven "serious" safety violations, including a failure to properly inspect a crane before it collapsed at Starbase in June 2025. The agency imposed the maximum financial penalty on six of those seven violations, totaling $115,850. According to federal records, SpaceX is contesting the penalties.

SpaceX has faced multiple lawsuits related to injuries sustained at Starbase in recent years. In December 2025, an employee of one of SpaceX's subcontractors sued after being crushed by a large metal support dropped from a crane. The subcontractor's employee, Eduardo Cavazos, suffered a broken hip, knee, and tibia.

OSHA opened a rapid response investigation into the December 2025 accident and later closed it without taking any punitive action, according to a public records request. The lawsuit filed by Cavazos was dropped because the subcontractor has workers' compensation insurance that prevents it from being sued, according to his attorney.

In 2025, an analysis of OSHA data by TechCrunch determined that the Starbase launch site had an injury rate that outpaced those of industry rivals and was the highest among SpaceX's worksites. A 2023 investigation by Reuters found dozens of previously unreported injuries and a worker death in 2014 at SpaceX's McGregor, Texas, test site.