This week, a crane collapsed at SpaceX's rocket facility in South Texas. Officials have not yet said whether anyone was injured. On June 23, a crane used to clean up the debris from the latest rocket explosion collapsed at the SpaceX launch site. The video of the accident scene was captured by one of the content creators who regularly takes photos of the scenePhoto by Lab Padre. However, due to the long shooting distance, it was impossible to tell whether anyone was injured or in danger.
SpaceX has yet to publicly acknowledge the crash, which isn't surprising; while the company releases details about space mishaps, such as explosions of its Starship rockets, it has otherwise been tight-lipped.
But SpaceX's facility is now located in a new city in Texas called Starbase, and the accident occurred within the city's borders. Starbase officials published a brief post on X after a Starship rocket exploded on a test stand last week.
However, there have been no posts about the crane collapse, and the city has ignored direct requests for information.
The collapse is the first test of Starbase City's willingness (and willingness) to be transparent. Starbase City is run by SpaceX executives and serves as an office space for the company and its more than 200 employees. Starbase City is also financially beholden to Elon Musk's aerospace company: Just this week, the city finalized a $1.5 million loan from SpaceX to fund the city's operations through September 2025.
The idea of building a city called "Starbase" was first proposed by Musk in 2021. But it wasn't until May this year that it officially became a city. Its residents - mostly SpaceX employees - voted overwhelmingly to approve the city's founding plan. Bobby Peden, SpaceX's vice president of Texas Test and Launch, becomes mayor. Jordan Buss, the company's senior director of environment, health and safety, serves as a commissioner. Another commissioner, Jenna Petrzelka, has worked at SpaceX for many years.
These officials have been busy shaping the new city over the past few weeks. At the end of May, the city sent notices to residents of the newly proposed "mixed-use area" saying they could "lose the right to continue to use" their properties. The city government also responded to SpaceX's request and began to set up gates to restrict entry and exit from the city on the grounds of safety. According to Valley Central, Bass said at a meeting that Starbase would allow entry to outsiders who "need to enter the city" and provide "access codes" to ambulances, firefighters and law enforcement personnel.
It was unclear whether such emergency rescue was needed when the crane collapsed on Tuesday. The Cameron County Sheriff's Department said they did not receive any calls from Starbase at the time of the crash. Local fire officials in the nearby city of Brownsville and Cameron County did not respond to requests for comment.
Aside from witnessing the accident, all we know about the collapse is that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has launched an investigation, CNBC reports .
SpaceX has a long history of employee safety concerns. But investigations by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are time-consuming and costly, and Musk’s DOGE project has reduced the agency’s power. Musk’s company also doesn’t have a great relationship with OSHA. In 2019, Tesla refused to let OSHA inspectors into its Nevada factory even after the inspectors returned with a warrant signed by a deputy sheriff and a judge.