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An antenna of the Starlink satellite-based broadband system donated by the U.S. tech billionaire Elon Musk in Izyum, Kharkiv region on Sept. 25, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
SpaceX’s Starlink said on Thursday it had restored its satellite internet network after one of its largest global outages, which disrupted the service for tens of thousands of users.
“The network issue has been resolved, and Starlink service has been restored. We understand how important connectivity is and apologize for the disruption,” the company stated on X.
Users in the United States and Europe began experiencing the outage at around 3 p.m. ET, according to Downdetector. The crowdsourced outage tracker reported receiving nearly 61,000 user reports about the issues.
Michael Nicolls, Starlink’s vice president of Starlink Engineering, said the outage was caused by a failure in “key internal software services” that run the core network.
Service was restored after a downtime of two and a half hours, according to Nicolls.
“We apologize 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 stated on X.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk issued an apology for the outage on social media and assured users that the company would promptly resolve the issue.
“SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” Musk stated on X.
The Starlink network is designed and operated by SpaceX, the aerospace manufacturer founded by Musk. The network currently serves more than six million users in 140 countries and territories, according to its website.
Tens of thousands of users lost their connection when the outage occurred. Downdetector received 60,546 user reports about the Starlink network disruption by 3.34 p.m. ET, according to its website.
Flightradar24, a flight tracking site, was also affected by the outage. The site stated that about five percent of its data feeds were lost due to the service disruption in the Starlink network.
“Some regions might have reduced ADS-B/MLAT coverage during the outage,” Flightradar24 stated on X, referring to the systems used for monitoring and tracking aircraft.
Before the outage, Musk announced a collaboration between Starlink and T-Mobile to offer direct-to-cell text messaging services. The service will enable mobile phone users to send text messages through the network without the need for cell towers.
“By partnering with Starlink direct-to-cell, your mobile phone company can eliminate dead zones,” Musk stated on X.
SpaceX has launched more than 8,000 Starlink satellites since 2020, building a uniquely distributed network in low-Earth orbit that has attracted intense demand from militaries, transportation industries, and consumers in rural areas with poor access to traditional, fiber-based internet.
