OSHA is investigating a worker’s death at SpaceX’s Starbase launch site in South Texas on Friday, May 15, 2026.

Jose Luis Bautista, a 25-year-old contractor from Donna, Texas, died after falling approximately 8 feet from scaffolding at SpaceX’s Starbase site about 4:17 a.m. on May 15, according to a report from The San Antonio Express-News.

Preliminary autopsy results cite blunt force trauma, and witnesses reported work stoppages at the GigaBay building for several hours after the incident, The Texas Tribune reported. 

OSHA has opened an investigation into the fatal fall. This follows a history of safety violations at Starbase, including seven serious citations in January tied to a crane collapse at its Massey test site, with $115,850 in penalties that SpaceX is contesting.

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

The company has been hit with multiple lawsuits related to injuries sustained at Starbase in recent years. In December, an employee of one of SpaceX’s subcontractors sued after he was crushed by a large metal support dropped from a crane. The worker, Eduardo Cavazos, suffered a broken hip, knee, and tibia, and OSHA opened a “rapid response investigation,” as TechCrunch reported in December.

Since 2021, OSHA has cited SpaceX 17 times for workplace safety violations at its sites in Texas, Washington and California.

The death occurred in the days leading up to SpaceX’s 12th Starship test flight, which was moved from May 19 to May 21. Officials have not confirmed any link between the fatality and the schedule change. The upcoming launch will be the first Starship flight of 2026 and marks the debut of the upgraded Starship V3 model.