SpaceX's Starlink experienced one of its most significant global outages on Thursday due to an internal software malfunction that left tens of thousands of users without service. The disruption, which began around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), affected users primarily in the United States and Europe.

According to Downdetector, a platform that tracks service issues, over 61,000 users reported problems during the outage.

Starlink, which serves more than 6 million users in around 140 countries and territories, acknowledged the disruption on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, stating that efforts were underway to resolve the issue. Service was largely restored after two and a half hours, according to Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink Engineering. He confirmed that the outage was caused by a failure in essential internal software systems responsible for running the core network and apologised for the inconvenience.

Elon Musk also issued an apology on X, promising that SpaceX would address the root cause to prevent future occurrences.

The rare disruption prompted speculation among industry experts regarding whether it was the result of a faulty software update, a system glitch, or a cyberattack. Doug Madory of the internet analysis firm Kentik noted the global scale of the outage and described it as highly unusual, suggesting it may be Starlink’s most prolonged service disruption since becoming a major internet provider.

As Starlink's user base expands, SpaceX has been upgrading its network to meet rising demand for higher speeds and greater bandwidth. The company is also working with T-Mobile to deploy more powerful satellites that can support direct-to-cell messaging, especially for emergency use in remote areas.

Since 2020, SpaceX has launched over 8,000 Starlink satellites, establishing a widespread low-Earth orbit network that appeals to military clients, transport industries, and rural consumers without reliable fibre internet access.

Gregory Falco, director of a space and cybersecurity lab at Cornell University, speculated that the cause could have been a flawed software update, drawing parallels to the widespread outage caused by a CrowdStrike update in 2024 that disrupted global internet services and Microsoft Windows systems.

It remains unclear whether the outage also impacted SpaceX’s other satellite services, including Starshield, its defence-focused unit with significant U.S. government contracts.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Friday that Elon Musk had previously ordered a partial shutdown of Starlink services during a key phase of Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces in September 2022.

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