Starlink, the satellite internet service spearheaded by Elon Musk, has been experiencing an outage lasting for more than two hours.
Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite communication service, experienced a widespread global outage on July 24, 2025, lasting approximately 2.5 hours. The outage began at around 19:15 UTC and was resolved by 21:44 UTC.
The cause of the outage was determined to be a software or configuration failure, affecting users worldwide, including civilian customers, airlines, and even critical users such as the Ukrainian army. This incident significantly impacted Starlink customers across multiple continents, causing loss of internet connectivity for hours.
In response, Starlink publicly acknowledged the outage on its platform, communicated actively about working on a fix, and successfully restored the network within hours. Despite this, such outages highlight the vulnerability of critical communication infrastructure to software issues and the broad ramifications when they occur, especially in geopolitically sensitive areas.
Starlink, operated by SpaceX, is a critical communication solution for areas with limited mobile phone reception. The service has also been adopted by the Ukrainian army for military and civilian communications due to the destruction of traditional infrastructure during the Russian invasion. Additionally, airlines around the world utilize Starlink for in-flight internet.
It's important to note that the outage did not affect the near-Earth orbit of Starlink satellites. The compact receive and transmit stations remain essential for customers to access Starlink services. These stations are used on the ground by customers to connect to the Starlink network, which consists of thousands of satellites orbiting Earth at a low altitude.
Starlink is not the only satellite communication service experiencing interruptions. For instance, Amazon is developing a competing service called Project Kuiper, but it is still in the early stages. The resolution of the Starlink outage serves as a reminder of the complexities and challenges inherent in such large-scale, critical infrastructure projects.
[1] SpaceX Manager's Statement on Starlink Outage [2] Starlink's Official Communication Regarding the Outage and Restoration Process
The outage experienced by Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite communication service, was a result of a software or configuration failure, affecting users worldwide. This incident significantly impacted science and technology, as Starlink customers across multiple continents lost internet connectivity for hours.
The compact receive and transmit stations, essential for customers to access Starlink services, were not impacted by the outage, but the event highlighted the vulnerability of space-and-astronomy related technology when software issues occur.
