Starlink is experiencing a network outage, Elon Musk’s SpaceX-owned satellite internet company said on Thursday, with Downdetector showing that the service was down for thousands of users.
“Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution,” it said in a post on X.
At the peak of the outage, there were more than 61,000 users reporting issues with Starlink on Downdetector, a website that collates status reports from various sources to track outages.
The service will be restored soon, Musk said on X. “SpaceX will remedy the root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Doug Madory, an expert at the internet analysis firm Kentik, said he was starting to see traffic come back at around 5:28 p.m. ET, after Starlink appeared to have experienced a “total outage” at around 3:13 p.m.
The outage was global, Madory told Reuters, adding that such a sweeping interruption in service was unusual.
With Starlink topping six million users worldwide, SpaceX is now focused on its nascent direct-to-cell business by adding larger satellites to its constellation to boost the network’s internet speeds and bandwidth.
SpaceX has launched over 8,000 Starlink satellites since 2020. It now offers service in over 140 countries and territories.
“I’d speculate this is a bad software update, not entirely dissimilar to the CrowdStrike mess with Windows last year, or a cyber attack,” said Gregory Falco, director of a space and cybersecurity laboratory at Cornell University.
An update to CrowdStrike’s widely used cybersecurity software led to worldwide flight cancellations and impacted industries around the globe in July last year. The outage disrupted internet services, affecting 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices.
