Starlink Internet Outage: Musk’s Satellite Service Goes Down for Over Two Hours, Thousands Affected Worldwide

Tech News: Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink—eagerly awaited in India—suffered a major outage on Thursday, leaving thousands of users without connectivity for more than two and a half hours. According to global outage tracker Downdetector, over 55,000 users reported issues during the disruption.

The outage was reported across several countries, including Germany, Zimbabwe, the United States, and India. Starlink, which is generally considered more reliable than traditional broadband and even 5G—especially in disaster scenarios—going offline has raised serious concerns about its dependability.

What Caused the Starlink Outage?

Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Engineering at Starlink, revealed via social media that the outage stemmed from a failure in a key internal software system responsible for managing the core network. This system glitch disrupted services for approximately 2.5 hours. Nicolls apologized for the inconvenience and assured users that the issue is being thoroughly investigated to prevent any recurrence.

Elon Musk Responds, Issues Apology

Elon Musk personally acknowledged the disruption and apologized for the incident. He stated that SpaceX, the parent company of Starlink, would ensure such outages are avoided in the future. Starlink currently operates in over 130 countries and has launched more than 7,800 satellites to expand its global internet coverage.

User Reactions: Frustration and Relief

As the outage progressed, users turned to social media to express their frustration. One user commented, “Lucky to have 5G service—otherwise Starlink’s downtime would’ve left us completely disconnected.”

The event highlighted one of the key drawbacks of satellite internet: limited backup options, especially in remote areas where Starlink often serves as the only viable connection.

What Lies Ahead for Starlink?

Starlink aims to deliver high-speed internet access to even the most remote corners of the world. While the service remains in its development and expansion phase, this recent outage has raised questions about its operational stability. Experts agree that for services like Starlink to be truly dependable, technical robustness and rapid failure response mechanisms must be a top priority—particularly in emergency situations where connectivity is crucial.

The incident highlights the importance of enhancing system resilience

The recent outage serves as a reminder that no technology is infallible, no matter how advanced. While SpaceX acted promptly and issued public apologies, the incident underlines the need for greater system resilience to make satellite internet a truly reliable alternative to traditional networks.