Why is Starlink down? Thousands of users across the globe reported internet outages as satellite faced a rare disruption

Starlink, Elon Musk's potent satellite internet system, experienced a rare hiccup on Thursday, July 24, 2025, when tens of thousands of users were taken offline due to an internal software malfunction, causing one of SpaceX undertaking's largest worldwide outages. 

The outage started for users in the U.S. and Europe at approximately 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), according to Downdetector, a crowdsourced outage tracker that reported up to 61,000 user reports to the website.

With over 6 million subscribers in about 140 countries and territories, Starlink later admitted to the downtime on its X account and stated that "we are actively implementing a solution."

Musk, who also owns X, expressed his regret on the platform as well, posting, "Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again." 

Service will be restored shortly.

Sorry for the outage.

SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again. https://t.co/q1bsTVtMZ7

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2025

Is Starlink down?

Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink Engineering, posted later on the same day on X that Starlink services had largely returned after two and a half hours.

Nicolls apologized for the interruption and promised to investigate its underlying cause. "The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network,"

Starlink has now mostly recovered from the network outage, which lasted approximately 2.5 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… https://t.co/ffFYM1Z7tD

— Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx) July 24, 2025

An unusual disruption to SpaceX's most commercially sensitive company, the outage had analysts wondering if the service, which is renowned for its robustness and quick expansion, was experiencing a glitch, a poorly executed software update, or perhaps a hack.

In recent months, SpaceX has made a major effort to update its network in order to meet the increasing demands for speed and bandwidth as Starlink's user base has grown.

In order to provide direct-to-cell text messaging services—a business model that enables mobile phone users to send emergency text messages through the network in rural areas—the company, in collaboration with T-Mobile (TMUS.O), is currently expanding the constellation with larger, more potent satellites.

Since 2020, SpaceX has launched over 8,000 Starlink satellites, creating a distinctively dispersed network in low-Earth orbit that has drawn high demand from the military, the transportation sector, and rural residents who have limited access to standard fiber-based internet.

Experts share opinion on Starlink outage

Doug Madory, an expert with the internet intelligence company Kentik, told Reuters that the outage was worldwide, and a widespread disruption of this magnitude is not common.

Madory claimed, "This is likely the longest outage ever for Starlink, at least while it became a major service provider."

Gregory Falco, the head of Cornell University's space and cybersecurity lab, also commented, "I'd speculate this is a bad software update, not entirely dissimilar to the CrowdStrike mess with Windows last year, or a cyberattack."

A software update of CrowdStrike(CRWD.O), commonly used cybersecurity software, affected industries globally and caused aircraft cancellations in July of 2024. A total of 8.5 million Microsoft (MSFT.O) devices were impacted by the disruption in internet services.

Whether Thursday's outage had an impact on SpaceX's other satellite-based services that depend on the Starlink network is yet unknown as of writing. The company's military satellite division, Starshield, has contracts worth billions of dollars with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Pentagon.

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