July 25, 2025 – A widespread outage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service disrupted connectivity for millions of users across the United States and globally on Thursday, July 24, 2025. The outage, which lasted approximately 2.5 hours, was attributed to a failure in key internal software services that operate the core network, as confirmed by Michael Nicolls, SpaceX’s Vice President of Starlink Engineering. The incident, one of the most significant in Starlink’s history, affected users in over 140 countries, raising concerns about the service’s reliability for both residential and critical applications.
Outage Details and Impact
The outage began around 3:00–3:30 p.m. ET, with users reporting “no healthy upstream” error messages and total blackouts. DownDetector recorded a peak of nearly 70,000 user complaints around 3:30 p.m. EDT, with issues reported in major U.S. cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis. Globally, connectivity dropped to 16% of normal levels, according to NetBlocks, affecting over 6 million users in 140 countries.
Starlink’s official website displayed a banner acknowledging the outage, stating, “Starlink is currently experiencing a service outage. Our team is investigating.” The company’s app also misled some users by indicating obstructions, complicating troubleshooting efforts. The outage disrupted web browsing, streaming, messaging, and critical operations, including those of Ukrainian military units relying on Starlink for communication.
Social media platforms, particularly X, were flooded with user reports. One Reddit user from Tennessee noted, “Down in Tennessee. WFH too, right in the middle of the workday,” highlighting the outage’s impact on remote workers. Another user, @cbrandlehner, complained that even the Starlink website was inaccessible during the disruption.
Official Response and Recovery
Starlink issued an update on X at 4:05 p.m. ET, stating, “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.” Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, personally apologized at 4:30 p.m. ET, posting, “Service will be restored shortly. Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” By 6:23 p.m. ET, Nicolls confirmed that the outage, caused by a failure in core network software services, had been resolved after approximately 2.5 hours. Full service restoration was announced by 8:15 p.m. ET via a Starlink post on X.
Despite the recovery, some users reported lingering issues, and experts like Doug Madory from Kentik described the event as Starlink’s longest outage since becoming a major internet provider. Speculation about causes ranged from a botched software update to a potential cyberattack, though no evidence of the latter was confirmed.
Context and Broader Implications
The outage occurred just one day after the launch of T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service, powered by Starlink, raising questions about potential network strain. T-Mobile reported no issues with T-Satellite, but the timing fueled discussions about Star blown-up image of Starlink Outage Disrupts Global Connectivity: Millions Affected Across the US and Beyond
July 25, 2025 – A widespread outage of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service disrupted connectivity for millions of users across the United States and globally on Thursday, July 24, 2025. The outage, which lasted approximately 2.5 hours, was attributed to a failure in key internal software services that operate the core network, as confirmed by Michael Nicolls, SpaceX’s Vice President of Starlink Engineering. The incident, one of the most significant in Starlink’s history, affected users in over 140 countries, raising concerns about the service’s reliability for both residential and critical applications.
Outage Details and Impact
The outage began around 3:00–3:30 p.m. ET, with users reporting “no healthy upstream” error messages and total blackouts. DownDetector recorded a peak of nearly 70,000 user complaints around 3:30 p.m. EDT, with issues reported in major U.S. cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis. Globally, connectivity dropped to 16% of normal levels, according to NetBlocks, affecting over 6 million users in 140 countries.
Starlink’s official website displayed a banner acknowledging the outage, stating, “Starlink is currently experiencing a service outage. Our team is investigating.” The company’s app also misled some users by indicating obstructions, complicating troubleshooting efforts. The outage disrupted web browsing, streaming, messaging, and critical operations, including those of Ukrainian military units relying on Starlink for communication.
Social media platforms, particularly X, were flooded with user reports. One Reddit user from Tennessee noted, “Down in Tennessee. WFH too, right in the middle of the workday,” highlighting the outage’s impact on remote workers. Another user, @cbrandlehner, complained that even the Starlink website was inaccessible during the disruption.
Official Response and Recovery
Starlink issued an update on X at 4:05 p.m. ET, stating, “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.” Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, personally apologized at 4:30 p.m. ET, posting, “Service will be restored shortly. Sorry for the outage. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” By 6:23 p.m. ET, Nicolls confirmed that the outage, caused by a failure in core network software services, had been resolved after approximately 2.5 hours. Full service restoration was announced by 8:15 p.m. ET via a Starlink post on X.
Despite the recovery, some users reported lingering issues, and experts like Doug Madory from Kentik described the event as Starlink’s longest outage since becoming a major internet provider. Speculation about causes ranged from a botched software update to a potential cyberattack, though no evidence of the latter was confirmed.
Context and Broader Implications
The outage occurred just one day after the launch of T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service, powered by Starlink, raising questions about potential network strain. T-Mobile reported no issues with T-Satellite, but the timing fueled discussions about Starlink’s capacity to handle growing demand. The outage also sparked concerns about reliance on Starlink in remote areas and for critical applications, such as Ukraine’s military operations, which depend on the service for secure communication.
Starlink’s rapid growth, with over 6 million users and 7,000 satellites in orbit, has positioned it as a critical infrastructure provider. This outage, described as a “rare worldwide connectivity loss” by X user @neemeshsir, underscored the challenges of scaling such a complex network. However, users like @ChadSweezey praised Starlink’s quick response, noting it was their first outage in over two years.
Sources
Information for this article was gathered from the following sources:
- Newsweek
- DownDetector
- PCMag
- The Verge
- CNBC
- StatusGator
- Hindustan Times
- The Guardian
- Reuters
- Mitrade
- DownForEveryoneOrJustMe
- The Independent
- Starlink Help Center
- X posts from @Starlink, @elonmusk, @BigBucksNFT11, @LiveLaphLuv, @InJesusNameUS, @TheWardsFarm, @cbrandlehner, @TheFawcette, and other users.
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