SpaceX’s internet network Starlink suffered an extensive global outage on Thursday which prevented thousands of users from getting online.
Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink Engineering confirmed on X that the outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network. During the outage the company acknowledged the glitch in a post on X: “Starlink is currently in a network outage, and we are actively implementing a solution. “We appreciate your patience; we’ll share an update once this issue is resolved.”
According to DownDetector, the outage began around 8 pm GMT on Thursday, with nearly 60,000 global users reporting to the website that they had been affected by the glitch.
Nicolls confirmed that the Starlink outage lasted approximately 2.5 hours, after which services were restored.
“We apologise for the temporary disruption in our service; we are deeply committed to providing a highly reliable network, and will fully root cause this issue and ensure it does not occur again,” Nicolls said on X.
Starlink published an update later in the evening: “The network issue has been resolved, and Starlink service has been restored. We understand how important connectivity is and apologise for the disruption.”
Musk also apologised for the issue on X: “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Doug Madory, an expert at the internet analysis firm Kentik, told Reuters that the outage was global and called the interruption “unusual”.
“This is likely the longest outage ever for Starlink, at least while it became a major service provider,” Madory said.
Gregory Falco, director of a space and cybersecurity laboratory at Cornell University, told the news agency: “I’d speculate this is a bad software update, not entirely dissimilar to the CrowdStrike mess with Windows last year, or a cyberattack.”
With the increase in Starlink users, SpaceX has focused heavily in recent months on upgrading its network to meet demands for faster speeds and greater bandwidth.
As of July 2025, Space X has launched over 9,200 Starlink satellites, with nearly 7,000 currently operational.
The constellation supports Starlink’s global internet service, which now reaches over 140 countries and serves more than six million users worldwide.
The satellites include laser interlinks and direct-to-cell capabilities, boosting mobile connectivity even in remote locations. Starshield, Starlink’s military-focused satellite business division, has contracts with the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies, including billion-dollar contracts for reconnaissance and missile tracking.
In 2022, Starlink and T-Mobile formed a partnership to launch a satellite-powered mobile service called T-Satellite.
T-Satellite supports text messaging, location sharing, and satellite-optimised apps and it is set to expand to MMS, voice and data services later this year according to Starlink.
Starlink’s outage comes after a well-publicised faulty software update at CrowdStrike triggered one of the largest IT outages in history last year, with the disruption leading to thousands of flight cancellations, impacting various sectors including banking, healthcare, and retail.
Following the chaos, the FCA called on companies to take several preventive steps, including improving third-party risk controls and ensuring contracts clearly outline responsibilities for service monitoring and incident notification.
