SpaceX was fined more than $18,000 after an incident that put one of Elon Musk's workers in a coma for months

• SpaceX was fined just over $18,000 following an accident at its facility in Hawthorne, California.
• A technician suffered a fractured skull during a rocket test in January, sources told Insider.

SpaceX was fined more than $18,000 following an incident that left one of Elon Musk's workers in a coma for months.

An integration engineer suffered a head injury on January 18 while testing a rocket part at SpaceX's facility in Hawthorne, California, according to people familiar with the matter and a regulator's report.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said in an accident investigation summary that it fined SpaceX $18,475 for two safety violations following the incident, which was first reported by Semafor.

The first violation was over the company's accident prevention program, while the second was over servicing multi-piece and single piece rim wheels used on large vehicles, the OSHA summary said. The latter was classed as the most serious penalty with the highest gravity of 10, per the summary.

The engineer was Francisco Cabada, a father of three from Los Angeles, former SpaceX intern Julia CrowleyFarenga told Insider.

In the investigation summary, OSHA said he was performing checks on a Raptor V2 engine in January when he "suffered a skull fracture and head trauma and was hospitalized in a coma for months."

While Cabada was conducting the test, a valve reached maximum pressure and blew off a plate that hit him and knocked him to the ground, CrowleyFarenga told Insider. Two other people familiar with the matter, who requested to remain anonymous, confirmed details of the incident to Insider.

Cabada's family set up a GoFundMe page for support, calling him the "primary breadwinner" and his sister posted a TikTok video on March 16 about how much the family missed him.

SpaceX didn't respond to Insider's request for comment.

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