The human toll of rushing space travel

[DaveL59]

600 injuries inc one death. 'elf & safety don't seem to matter 😞 

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-musk-safety/

Makes you wonder about his other companies practises too...

[Mandy D]

Electrocutions (plural) and one death? Does nobody understand English, any more?

[DaveL59]

12 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

Electrocutions (plural) and one death? Does nobody understand English, any more?

hmm well electrocution isn't always fatal. The death was because one eejit decided since they didn't have any tie-downs available to use that he'd sit atop the cargo while the other guy drove the truck. Being foam the wind got it to fly and he ended head first into the road. Doesn't sound like there's much of a safety culture there, big surprise.

Edited November 10, 2023 by DaveL59

[Paul M]

Hmmm, I suppose to make an omelet you have to break some eggs.

That maybe comes over more crass than intended. But I work for an employer that prides itself on safety. And a good record is easier to achieve when you don't actually do any work. Just sayi'n. 

I imagine that SpaceX is a bustling dynamic organisation. As we know it gets things done. I don't know whether their accident rate due to rushing or just related to high productivity. If you have one group of  electricians that work, on average, 1 hour a day* and another group that work, say, 6 hours a day, one group will have a much higher accident rate. But no one was rushing!

I hear Musk doesn't suffer fools, but most industrial accidents are caused by people being foolish; Ignoring rules/procedures/protocols/common sense. 

Of course, there may well be incidences of employees being rushed/intimidated/poorly trained/incompetent...etc. Those would be the real news.

*I could name names! 🙊 😂

[DaveL59]

I agree Paul tho having basic equipment like tie-downs unavailable smacks of a poorly run outfit.

Not saying that an inherent safety culture means no incidents. I come from that in the airport sector, safety was everyone's responsibility but things happen. A PIG caught in a jet blast hitting a plane just isn't supposed to happen but I know of one instance where it did. Minor damage to the plane, thankfully, but other than being expensive it could've been much worse had it resulted in the plane depressurizing at altitude.

[Mandy D]

1 hour ago, DaveL59 said:

hmm well electrocution isn't always fatal. The death was because one eejit decided since they didn't have any tie-downs available to use that he'd sit atop the cargo while the other guy drove the truck. Being foam the wind got it to fly and he ended head first into the road. Doesn't sound like there's much of a safety culture there, big surprise.

Technically, electrocution (c.f. execution) means death by electric shock! Although, thanks to popular culture, today it gets used interchangeably with electric shock and even dictionaries are now including such definitions. This does not make it correct though.

[DaveL59]

1 minute ago, Mandy D said:

Technically, electrocution (c.f. execution) means death by electric shock! Although, thanks to popular culture, today it gets used interchangeably with electric shock and even dictionaries are now including such definitions. This does not make it correct though.

Fair enough, I can certainly attest to surviving a good few electric shocks, even one at pretty high voltage off a vandergraph generator in late teens, so I guess I got lucky and escaped the full electrocution (or is that electrosucution) effect 🙂 

[Mandy D]

I'm not even sure how to pronounce "electrosucution", but I do know how to spell Van de Graaff. I got hooked up to one in school to make my hair stand on end! It tingled a tiny bit! 🙂🙃🙂

[DaveL59]

26 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

I'm not even sure how to pronounce "electrosucution", but I do know how to spell Van de Graaff. I got hooked up to one in school to make my hair stand on end! It tingled a tiny bit! 🙂🙃🙂

hey my teens woz a long time ago, I just couldn't be a'd to google it for the right spelling on the tablet  😛

Whatever you do tho, DO NOT try to charge a laden jar in one hand while moving a neon in with the other. That big voltage drop over a few CMs between the 2 "experiments" sure wasn't a tingle I can tell you. More like an elephant had jumped onto my chest! 😮  Not sure who was more shocked tho, me or the physics master but for sure that off piste experiment I did, having asked "what happens if..." wasn't allowed again.

[Albir phil]

41 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

hey my teens woz a long time ago, I just couldn't be a'd to google it for the right spelling on the tablet  😛

Whatever you do tho, DO NOT try to charge a laden jar in one hand while moving a neon in with the other. That big voltage drop over a few CMs between the 2 "experiments" sure wasn't a tingle I can tell you. More like an elephant had jumped onto my chest! 😮  Not sure who was more shocked tho, me or the physics master but for sure that off piste experiment I did, having asked "what happens if..." wasn't allowed again.

Touching a old type tv tube from the back we're the coil fit on the tube when tv as been just unpluged makes for a very interesting experience, not to be repeated ⚡⚡🤬

[maw lod qan]

Many large companies have very strict safety procedures, and I'm certain SpaceX is one of them.

"Hey, you shouldn't be standing on the top step of that ladder to reach that box that was put higher than it should have been placed!" WINK, WINK! As the supervisor turns and walks away!