SpaceX’s satellite internet service, Starlink, experienced one of its most significant global outages on Thursday, disrupting connectivity for tens of thousands of users, mainly across the United States and Europe.
The outage began around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) and lasted approximately two and a half hours. Monitoring site Downdetector recorded more than 61,000 user reports during the disruption.
Starlink later confirmed that the interruption was caused by a “failure of key internal software services that operate the core network.” Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Starlink Engineering, issued an apology via the social platform X, assuring users that services had been restored and that investigations were ongoing to determine the root cause.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also apologised publicly, writing, “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
The rare disruption sparked speculation among users and analysts, some questioning whether a faulty software update or a cyberattack may have been responsible. Doug Madory, an internet infrastructure expert at Kentik, described the scale and duration of the outage as “unusual” and likely the longest Starlink has experienced since its emergence as a major provider.
Starlink currently serves over six million users across roughly 140 countries and territories. Its rapidly growing network of more than 8,000 low-Earth orbit satellites has become a vital source of connectivity for remote communities, as well as governments and militaries operating in hard-to-reach locations.
SpaceX has recently ramped up Starlink’s capabilities, including a partnership with T-Mobile to deliver direct-to-cell text messaging in rural areas. The company is also deploying a new generation of more powerful satellites to meet rising global demand.
Gregory Falco, a cybersecurity expert at Cornell University, said the incident was reminiscent of the 2024 CrowdStrike software failure that crippled millions of Microsoft Windows systems worldwide. “I’d speculate this is a bad software update, not entirely dissimilar to the CrowdStrike mess with Windows last year—or potentially a cyberattack,” he said.
It remains unclear whether Starshield, SpaceX’s military-focused satellite division that relies on Starlink infrastructure and holds contracts with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, was affected by the outage.
