Starlink, Musk's satellite internet service, experienced an outage lasting over two hours. - Starlink, Musk's satellite internet service, has experienced an outage lasting more than two hours.
Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet service, experienced a widespread outage on July 24, 2025, affecting users worldwide, including critical entities such as airlines and the Ukrainian army. The service disruptions began around 3:20 PM ET (19:15 UTC) and lasted approximately two and a half hours before recovery started around 5:30 PM ET, with most users restored by 6:23 PM ET (21:40 UTC).
According to a SpaceX manager, the cause of the outage was a failure of key internal software components, likely related to a software or configuration issue affecting the global network. The exact nature of the software fault or configuration problem involved has not been publicly detailed by SpaceX.
The outage, which is relatively rare for Starlink, affected millions of users. Customers use compact ground stations for reception and transmission with Starlink, and the service's reliability is crucial given its widespread use, particularly in areas without mobile coverage.
Starlink's VP of engineering confirmed the outage and thanked users for their patience, with promises to share further updates once available. No public announcements have been made about long-term changes or specific corrective measures to prevent similar outages in the future.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin, is developing a competing service to Starlink under the name Project Kuiper. However, the current status of Project Kuiper and its potential impact on Starlink's market share are not yet clear.
Starlink's popularity is not limited to consumer use. Various airlines also rely on the service for in-flight internet. In Ukraine, the army has come to rely on Starlink as traditional communication infrastructure has been largely destroyed in the Russian invasion.
As Starlink continues to expand its network, operating thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit, it is expected that such outages will remain rare. However, the company will need to address the cause of this outage and implement measures to prevent similar incidents in the future to maintain user trust and confidence.
The Commission, in light of the recent Starlink outage and its impact on critical entities, might consider a proposal for a directive on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to ionizing radiation in space-and-astronomy and related technology industries, as the use of such technology is on the rise in the general news.
Meanwhile, science and technology advancements continue with Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin, developing Project Kuiper, a competitor to Starlink, offering potential new solutions for reliable internet connectivity in the future.
