Starlink Acknowledges Software Failure Behind Outage of Satellite Internet Service
Outage reports spiked Thursday afternoon for Elon Musk's high-flying satellite operations.
Starlink experienced an outage Thursday afternoon that went on for 2.5 hours and took down tens of thousands of people's satellite internet service.Â
By a little after 5 p.m. PT Thursday, the company said in a post on X that the underlying network issue had been resolved and Starlink service was restored.
The company provided only cursory information about what happened behind the scenes. "The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network," Starlink VP of engineering Michael Nicolls said on X.
Starlink, owned by Elon Musk, has changed the game in terms of internet accessibility in rural and other underserved areas lacking high-speed broadband infrastructure. It has 2 million US subscribers, and more than 6 million globally.
Outage reports spiked to around 60,000 at about 1 p.m. PT, according to the Downdetector service, which tracks submissions from users about site problems. At the same time, Starlink took to social media to acknowledge the issue: "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," it posted on X at 1:05 p.m. PT. Â
On Downdetector, outage reports dropped to just 1,600 as of 4:30 p.m. PT. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)
Read more on what happened below.
Starlink is 'critical' in rural areas
CNET Senior Writer Abrar Al-Heeti says Starlink is vital to provide connectivity to people living in rural areas.
"For a lot of people, especially in rural areas, services like Starlink can be a critical way to get connected," she says. "And given how much of our lives take place online nowadays, an outage can have a significant impact on everything from work to education to communication."
Starlink outage reports drop
Issue reports have dropped down to just 3,000 on DownDetector as of 4 p.m. PT, reflecting the fix.
However, Starlink has yet to provide an update on X about the outage, and hasn't yet confirmed whether it's been fully repaired.
Starlink: 'A game changer'
Starlink service has made a huge difference for people in rural areas where cable or fiber don't reach. "It's been a game changer," one customer in Alaska told CNET's Joe Supan. "You bring a Starlink dish out there and plug it in. Two minutes later, you've got the whole world again in the palm of your hand."Â
In his in-depth feature story about Starlink and satellite internet earlier this year, Joe noted that Starlink essentially handed over a time machine and fast-forwarded people in those out-of-the-way places from 2005 to 2025 overnight. But there are downsides, including an increasingly crowded low Earth orbit, "making space a perilously busy place," Joe wrote.Â
You can read the full story here: Inside the Rise of 7,000 Starlink Satellites -- and Their Inevitable Downfall
Starlink says it's 'mostly recovered'
Starlink VP of engineering Michael Nicolls tweeted that the service has "now mostly recovered from the network outage" after two and a half hours.
"The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network. We apologize 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," the tweet, posted at 3:23 p.m. PT, says.
Musk had tweeted at news of the initial outage: "Service will be restored shortly. Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn't happen again."
Starlink services: Internet and texting
Starlink has over 7,000 low-Earth orbit satellites in the sky, sent up via SpaceX rockets. It's planning to send 42,000 satellites into space, which has some climate experts concerned about the potential impacts on the ozone. There are also concerns that its satellite internet service does not always meet the FCC's definition of minimum broadband speeds, which is 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload.
As well as providing internet services, Starlink also just added satellite texting with T-Mobile on Wednesday.