According to National Public Radio on December 21, at least 132 employees at SpaceX's Southern California headquarters tested positive for COVID-19. This is the site of the largest workplace outbreak recently tracked nationwide by local health officials.
Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, SpaceX employs nearly 6,000 people and is responsible for building the Falcon 9 rocket and the capsule of the Manned Dragon spacecraft. According to the New York Times, the outbreak at headquarters coincided with SpaceX's peak season.
Judging from the recent launch performance, SpaceX completed the final launch of the year on December 21, sending a "courier" for NASA to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 rocket launched 31 times this year, breaking the record of 26 launches set in 2020.
SpaceX also made three launches in 72 hours, followed by the launch of 52 Starlink satellites on the evening of December 18, the first time an arrow 11 fly 11 recovery, and 15 hours later at noon on December 19, the Turkish Turksat 5B communications satellite was launched.
It was the site of the largest workplace outbreak recently tracked nationwide by local health officials, and the second time Musk's company has been at the epicenter of a large workplace COVID-19 outbreak, according to NPR.
The Washington Post has reported that in the early seven months of the epidemic, about 450 of the 10,000 workers at Tesla's Fremont, California, factory tested positive.
But Musk slammed the lockdown measures affecting the factory at the time, calling it "fascism" and "undemocratic." Last May, he resumed production at the Fremont plant, defying local government shutdown orders.
![Musk's rocket is about to hit the moon! Launched seven years ago, it is now space junk[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)