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Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service experienced a widespread outage Thursday, taking many users offline worldwide. The downtime was caused by a malfunction in the system’s internal software. Although Starlink typically runs reliably, the service faced a 2.5-hour interruption before engineers managed to restore functionality. The company issued an apology and committed to fixing the issue to prevent future outages.
Users across the United States and Europe started seeing disruptions around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), with Downdetector reporting up to 61,000 individual complaints. Starlink, which serves over 6 million users in approximately 140 countries and territories, later confirmed the outage via its X platform, stating, “We are actively working on a solution.”
Service largely resumed after the 2.5-hour downtime, according to Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Engineering at Starlink. “The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network,” he explained, apologizing for the disruption and assuring that the root cause would be thoroughly investigated.
Elon Musk also apologized publicly, saying, “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will address the root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
This kind of widespread service interruption is uncommon for SpaceX’s most commercially critical venture. Industry experts have speculated whether the outage resulted from a software glitch, a failed update, or possibly a cyberattack. Doug Madory of Kentik, an internet analysis firm, noted the outage’s global scope and said such an extensive disruption is unusual, adding, “This might be the longest outage Starlink has experienced since becoming a major provider.”
As Starlink’s user base expands, SpaceX has been heavily investing in updating its network infrastructure to meet demands for faster speeds and increased bandwidth. The company is also partnering with T-Mobile to expand its satellite constellation, deploying larger, more powerful satellites capable of providing direct-to-cell text messaging services, allowing users in rural areas to send emergency texts via the network.
Since 2020, SpaceX has launched over 8,000 Starlink satellites, creating a distributed low-Earth orbit network that has attracted significant interest from military, transportation sectors, and residents in underserved rural regions. Gregory Falco, director of a space and cybersecurity research lab at Cornell University, speculated that the outage might stem from a problematic software update—similar to last year’s incident involving CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software, which caused widespread disruptions, including flight cancellations and internet outages affecting 8.5 million Windows devices globally.
It remains unclear whether this outage impacted other SpaceX satellite services that depend on the Starlink network. For instance, Starshield, the company’s military satellite division, holds billions of dollars’ worth of contracts with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies.
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