Elon Musk Apologizes After Major Starlink Internet Outage Disrupts Users Worldwide
So, if you noticed your internet going haywire recently and you’re using Starlink, you definitely weren’t alone. In fact, on Thursday, July 24th, Starlink – the satellite internet service run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX – experienced a rare but major global outage. This wasn’t just a quick blip either; the disruption lasted for about two and a half hours, knocking tens of thousands of users offline across more than 140 countries.
Reports started flooding in around 3:24 PM Eastern Time, with outage tracking site Downdetector recording over 60,000 user complaints at the peak of the issue. That’s a massive number, especially for a service that’s usually praised for its reliability and performance in remote or underserved areas.
Also Read:- Is Another UK Heatwave on the Way or Will August Bring More Rain?
- Ford Recalls Over 5,700 Vehicles in Southern Africa Over Safety Risks
The company later confirmed the outage was caused by a failure of internal software services that operate the core of their network. Essentially, something behind the scenes – something pretty critical – went wrong on the software side. And although it wasn’t a hardware or satellite issue, this internal glitch was enough to take out a significant portion of the Starlink network for a good chunk of time.
Starlink’s vice president of engineering, Michael Nicolls, addressed the situation publicly and explained the nature of the problem. He apologized for the inconvenience and assured users that the issue would be thoroughly investigated and fixed so it wouldn’t happen again. Elon Musk himself also issued an apology on X (formerly Twitter), simply saying, “Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
And while this kind of large-scale disruption is extremely rare for Starlink, the event definitely raised some eyebrows. People began speculating whether it might’ve been caused by a bad software update or, in the more extreme theories, even a cyberattack. Though no such cause has been confirmed, it’s clear the outage was significant enough to shake user confidence a bit.
For context, Starlink has launched more than 8,000 satellites since 2020 and now supports over six million users. Its low-Earth orbit network has become a go-to solution for reliable internet, especially in places where traditional broadband just doesn’t cut it. The service has been rapidly expanding and even gaining interest from military and transportation sectors.
So while this outage may have been a glitch in an otherwise smooth system, it’s a reminder that even the most high-tech services can still hit a snag. The good news is – according to the company – lessons will be learned, and steps are being taken to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Read More:
0 Comments