SpaceX's Starlink Hit by Major Global Outage Due to Software Glitch
A significant software failure disrupted SpaceX’s Starlink service on Thursday, leaving tens of thousands of users worldwide without internet access, marking one of the system’s largest outages to date.
According to crowd-sourced outage tracker Downdetector, users in the U.S. and Europe began reporting connectivity issues around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), with peak reports exceeding 61,000. Starlink, which serves over 6 million customers in roughly 140 countries and territories, later acknowledged the problem on its X account, stating that a fix was being implemented.
Service was largely restored after two and a half hours, according to Starlink Vice-President of Engineering Michael Nicolls, who explained that the disruption stemmed from a failure in core network software. He apologized for the incident and pledged to identify the root cause. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also issued an apology, vowing to prevent future occurrences.
The outage, unusual for Starlink’s typically resilient network, prompted speculation among experts about potential causes, including a flawed software update or a cyberattack. Doug Madory of internet analytics firm Kentik noted the global scale of the disruption, calling it likely the most prolonged outage in Starlink’s history since becoming a major service provider.
Amid rapid growth, SpaceX has been upgrading its satellite network to meet rising demand for speed and bandwidth. The company is also collaborating with T-Mobile to expand its constellation with larger satellites aimed at providing direct-to-cell messaging, particularly for emergency use in remote areas.
Since 2020, SpaceX has deployed over 8,000 Starlink satellites, building a widely distributed low-Earth orbit network that caters to military, commercial, and rural users with limited traditional internet access.
Gregory Falco, head of a space and cybersecurity lab at Cornell University, suggested the outage could be linked to a problematic software update or a cyberattack, drawing parallels to last year’s CrowdStrike incident, which disrupted millions of Windows devices worldwide.
It remains unclear whether the outage impacted SpaceX’s other satellite-based services, including Starshield, its military-focused division.
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