Longtime supervisor Robert Marquhart argues that when SpaceX leaders warned that some of the rocket fairing recovery process “can easily cause serious injuries or death,” the recent lawsuit claimed it was ignored because it was “a more economical solution.” A few months later, he had lost his job.
Markert is one of two former SpaceX employees who filed an independent, unlawful termination lawsuit, both of which were removed in federal court earlier this month. The two complaints make similar claims about how speed and cost reduction won over other considerations, including safety.
The lawsuit arrives as SpaceX races, and prepares to complete Starship Ultra-Heavy Rocket NASA, commercial customer missions and launch Starlink Satellite Internet Service. Beyond the spacecraft program, SpaceX also operates the Falcon 9, the most frequently launched rocket in history, and has flew 87 times so far this year.
Markert spent 13 years at the company before being fired in April. He claims that while he was in his tenure, he sometimes had to work for 15-20 days in a row, but when he brought this to the supervisor he was told “schedule comes first.” That punishment schedule, carried out in a stressful environment, caused injuries, and Marquart claims he was too afraid of the ship’s engineers reporting.
When Markert suggested that the company prioritize training and certification, he was told, “There’s no time for that and the company wouldn’t spend any money on it.”
The second lawsuit filed by SpaceX Plumber David Lavalle alleges that the company was fired after multiple job-related injuries, including broken leg, severe neck pain, back and shoulder injuries and wrist pain, were unable to accommodate multiple job-related injuries. Lavalle applied for workers’ compensation for some of these injuries but did not do so for everyone, fearing retaliation, the complaint states.
Nine days after requesting medical leave due to knee pain caused by gout, Labare was finished. Lavalle, 60, joined the company in 2014. He claims he is part of a wave of shootings by older staff, led in part by 28-year-old Scott Hiler, who SpaceX hired as new senior manager late last year.
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The lawyer representing Markert declined to comment, but Lavalle’s lawyers did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. SpaceX did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
A recent report from TechCrunch showed SpaceX outperformed its colleagues in 2024 worker injuries. Occupational Safety and Health Administration data showed that the Texas Starbase complex recorded an injury rate of 4.27 per 100 workers last year, nearly three times the average for aerospace manufacturing.
Markert, a resident of Los Angeles County, has not explicitly stated where he worked for SpaceX. The lawsuit notes that he worked with the ship’s engineers. SpaceX’s West Coast Rocket Fairing Recovery Operating counts the highest injury rates across all SpaceX sites, OSHA logs show an injury rate of 7.6 per 100 people in West Coast operations.
Both complaints were filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and subsequently removed by SpaceX to US District Court for the Central District of California.
