Global Outage Hits Starlink Internet, Services Disrupted in 140 Countries

Elon Musk’s satellite internet firm blames software glitch; services restored after 2.5 hours

In a rare and widespread disruption, Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service suffered a global outage on Thursday, impacting millions of users across 140 countries. The satellite-based network, operated by SpaceX, experienced a sudden breakdown in connectivity, leaving thousands of routers offline and users unable to access the internet.

According to a Reuters report, the outage was caused by a failure in Starlink’s internal software systems, which are essential to operating the satellite network’s core infrastructure. The glitch led to a cascading loss of connectivity across multiple regions — an unusual event for a service known for its resilience and reliability, even in remote or disaster-hit areas.

Confirming the outage, Starlink posted on X (formerly Twitter):"Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution. We appreciate your patience, we'll share an update once this issue is resolved."

Later, Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Starlink Engineering, shared a follow-up update:"Starlink has now mostly recovered from the network outage, which lasted approximately 2.5 hours. The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network. 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."

Starlink users in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia reported sudden loss of internet around the same time, fueling speculation online before the company issued an official response.

While the services have largely recovered, the outage has raised concerns about the vulnerability of satellite-based internet platforms as they become critical to global connectivity.