Hawthorne, California: SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service suffered one of its most significant global outages, temporarily knocking tens of thousands of users offline in a rare disruption that triggered widespread concern and prompted apologies from top SpaceX executives, including founder and CEO Elon Musk.
The outage occurred on July 24 and lasted for approximately two hours and 30 minutes, according to Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Starlink Engineering. In a post on X, Nicolls attributed the disruption to a “failure of key internal software services that operate the core network.”
Users began experiencing service issues around 3 PM Eastern Time (19:00 GMT), and the outage quickly drew attention as Downdetector, a crowdsourced platform that tracks internet disruptions, logged as many as 61,000 user reports during the incident.
The network issue has been resolved, and Starlink service has been restored. We understand how important connectivity is and apologize for the disruption.
— Starlink (@Starlink) July 25, 2025
This unexpected failure sparked speculation among experts, with some suggesting the cause could have been a software glitch, a flawed update, or even a possible cyberattack.
“This outage was due to the failure of key internal software services that operate the core network. 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 explained.
Elon Musk also took to X to express his regret, and stated that, “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy the root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
The disruption is a rare blemish on Starlink’s otherwise resilient reputation. Since its launch in 2020, Starlink has rapidly scaled its operations and now boasts over six million users across roughly 140 countries and territories. SpaceX has launched more than 8,000 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, creating a massive and distributed global network.
The service has gained significant traction among militaries, the transportation industry, and consumers, particularly those in remote or rural regions where traditional fiber-optic internet is limited or unavailable.
In recent months, Starlink has intensified its focus on enhancing network capacity to meet the rising demand for faster speeds and greater bandwidth. Despite the incident, the company reiterated its dedication to maintaining a highly reliable service and pledged to prevent similar issues from recurring.
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