Starlink, the satellite internet service by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, experienced a major outage on Thursday afternoon, disrupting internet access for tens of thousands of users worldwide for about 2.5 hours.
At around 1 p.m. PT, users started reporting connectivity issues, with outage reports spiking to over 60,000 according to data from Downdetector. The company confirmed the issue on X (formerly Twitter), writing:
“Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution. We appreciate your patience.”
By 4:30 p.m. PT, the number of reports had dropped to just 1,600, and shortly after 5 p.m., Starlink posted an update confirming that service had been fully restored.
What Caused the Outage?
In a follow-up post, Michael Nicolls, Starlink’s VP of Engineering, explained the cause:
“The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network.”
The company did not share more technical details about the issue but assured users that the underlying network problem had been resolved.
How Big Was the Impact?
Starlink currently serves over 2 million subscribers in the US and more than 6 million users globally, especially in rural and underserved regions where traditional high-speed broadband is unavailable.
This widespread dependency meant the outage had a significant impact, especially for users who rely on Starlink as their primary or only internet source.
Despite this temporary service disruption, Starlink remains a game-changer for global internet access, especially in remote and low-infrastructure regions. However, the incident highlights the importance of reliable network infrastructure even for satellite-based services.
As more users adopt Starlink for critical online access, the pressure to maintain stability and transparency in times of outages will only increase
