Musk apologises after Starlink satellite's hours-long global outage

Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, faced a widespread outage on Thursday that lasted for several hours. According to company executives, the disruption stemmed from a malfunction in crucial internal software that supports the core network operations.

The official Starlink account acknowledged the service interruption around 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2000 GMT), although users in the U.S. and Europe had already begun reporting connectivity issues on Downdetector about an hour earlier.

"Service will be restored shortly," Musk posted on X, apologising for the outage. "SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn't happen again."

Later, Musk shared a post from Starlink’s Vice President of Engineering, Michael Nicolls, who attributed the outage to a breakdown in essential software systems critical to maintaining the network’s functionality.

Nicolls noted that the network had largely bounced back following the disruption, which lasted for roughly two and a half hours. Within a couple of hours, the company confirmed that the problem had been fully resolved and normal service had resumed.

Reports of the outage began surfacing on Downdetector shortly after 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (1900 GMT), with the highest number of complaints recorded at 3:34 p.m. Activity on the site gradually decreased, returning to normal levels by around 11:00 p.m. (0300 GMT).

Starlink, operated by SpaceX, has launched over 6,000 low-Earth orbit satellites to deliver high-speed internet access to remote and underserved regions globally.

The company is currently at the forefront of the satellite internet sector, far outpacing European rival Eutelsat, which is supported by France and the UK and has around 600 satellites in operation.