Hajra Naz
WASHINGTON – Tens of thousands of people lost internet access on Thursday. The outage affected users across the world. It happened after Elon Musk’s Starlink service suddenly went down. The disruption lasted more than two hours. It was caused by a failure in Starlink’s internal software systems. This marked a rare setback for the fast-growing satellite internet provider.
According to outage tracker Downdetector, reports began pouring in around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), with more than 61,000 users across the U.S. and Europe reporting connectivity issues.
Starlink, a division of Musk’s SpaceX, acknowledged the problem on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, saying it was “actively implementing a solution.” The service, which boasts more than 6 million users across 140+ countries and territories, resumed operations after approximately two and a half hours.
Michael Nicolls, Starlink’s Vice President of Engineering, confirmed in a post on X that the outage was caused by a failure of “key internal software services that operate the core network.” He apologized for the incident and promised that engineers were working to fully understand and address the root cause.
Elon Musk also issued an apology, writing, “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy the root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Unusual and Widespread Disruption
The scale of the outage raised eyebrows among internet analysts and industry experts. Doug Madory of Kentik, a firm that monitors global internet activity, called it a rare and sweeping disruption. Madory said.
“This is likely the longest outage ever for Starlink, at least since it became a major service provider.”
Starlink is known for being reliable. It’s especially helpful in rural and remote areas with little access to fiber internet. That’s why Thursday’s blackout was a surprise. Some users were also concerned.
Cybersecurity experts shared their thoughts on the cause. Some believed it could be a bad software update. Others wondered if it was a cyberattack. Gregory Falco from Cornell University gave his opinion. He leads a space and cybersecurity lab there. He said it might be similar to the CrowdStrike issue in July 2024. That event had affected Microsoft Windows systems around the world.
Falco said.
“I’d speculate this is a bad software update, not entirely dissimilar to the CrowdStrike mess with Windows last year, or a cyberattack,”
The CrowdStrike incident resulted in the failure of 8.5 million Windows devices, causing flight disruptions and business disruptions worldwide. While no evidence currently suggests malicious interference in the Starlink case, the incident is prompting a further investigation.
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Starlink’s Growing Role in Global Connectivity
Since 2020, SpaceX has launched over 8,000 Starlink satellites. These satellites form a low-Earth orbit network. It provides internet to places that are hard to reach. The service is valuable for remote users, the military, and the transportation industry.
Starlink is working to make its network faster and more powerful. A recent deal with T-Mobile will allow direct-to-cell text messaging. This can help people send messages in rural or disaster-hit areas.
SpaceX also runs Starshield, its military-grade satellite service. It has secured billions in contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence agencies. It’s still unclear if the outage on Thursday affected Starshield or other SpaceX services.
