SpaceX workers reportedly took Adderall and IV fluids, and some slept in the bathroom, to keep up with Elon Musk's deadlines
A Reuters investigation looked at 600 work injuries at SpaceX from 2014 to present.
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Some SpaceX workers resorted to taking Adderall stimulants in order to keep up with the pace of work at the company's launch facility, and others found themselves falling asleep in the bathroom during long work weeks, according to a recent Reuters investigation.
Travis Carson, a former SpaceX worker at the company's facility in Brownsville, Texas, told Reuters some worker took Adderall — a stimulant designed to help people with ADHD improve their focus and concentration levels — without a prescription to keep up with the pace of work. Carson was a welder and later a production supervisor at SpaceX from 2019 to 2022, when he was terminated following an argument with his manager, the publication said.
Four current and former SpaceX workers at the location, including Carson, told the publication that employees would sometimes work over 80 hours per week and some would sleep at the facility in order to get more work done. Some employees would fall asleep in the bathrooms, according to four current and former workers who spoke to Reuters.
SpaceX welders like Carson would reportedly also work in tent structures at the launch site, sometimes dealing with temperatures in the excess of 100 degrees while welding rocket machinery. To address the heat issue workers would receive IV treatments in order to continue working, Reuters reported.
Elon Musk's rocket company, which employs about 13,000 people, had at least 600 worker injuries over the course of 9 years across its facilities, the publication reported. The number does not represent the full number of injuries at SpaceX because the company has not submitted reports to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for all of the years it has been in operation, according to Reuters. Though, the injury rate at the facilities for the years that were reported exceed space-industry averages for the same years, the publication said.
