Starlink Outage Hits Tens of Thousands In Rare Global Disruption

SpaceX’s Starlink experienced one of its most significant international outages on Thursday, when a software failure disrupted internet access for tens of thousands of users worldwide. The outage, which began around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), affected users primarily in the United States and Europe. According to Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions, more than 61,000 user reports were filed during the incident.

The disruption, lasting roughly 2.5 hours, was later confirmed by Starlink, which said it was caused by a “failure of key internal software services that operate the core network.” The company’s vice president of Starlink Engineering, Michael Nicolls, apologised on social media platform X and assured users that a solution had been implemented and investigations into the root cause were underway.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also issued a public apology, stating, “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

The rare service interruption raised questions among analysts and users, with some speculating whether a botched software update or a cyberattack might have been responsible. Doug Madory, an internet infrastructure expert at Kentik, said the scale and duration of the outage were “unusual,” adding that it was likely the longest service disruption Starlink has faced since becoming a major provider.

Starlink, which currently serves over six million users across roughly 140 countries and territories, is a key pillar of SpaceX’s commercial portfolio. Its low-Earth orbit satellite constellation—numbering more than 8,000 satellites launched since 2020—has drawn high demand from consumers in remote areas, as well as governments and militaries seeking reliable internet in challenging terrains.

In recent months, SpaceX has been scaling up the capacity of the Starlink network, partnering with T-Mobile to provide direct-to-cell text messaging in rural areas. The company is also deploying newer, more powerful satellites to meet increasing bandwidth demands.

Gregory Falco, a cybersecurity expert at Cornell University, said the incident bore resemblance to the 2024 CrowdStrike software issue that disrupted services for millions of Microsoft Windows devices globally. “I’d speculate this is a bad software update, not entirely dissimilar to the CrowdStrike mess with Windows last year, or a cyberattack,” he noted.

It remains unclear whether the outage impacted SpaceX’s military satellite arm, Starshield, which has lucrative contracts with US defence and intelligence agencies and relies on the Starlink infrastructure.