Starlink Experiences Outage, Leaving Ukrainian Military Devoid of Communication.
Starlink Suffers First Global Outage of 2025
On Friday, July 24, 2025, Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet service, experienced a significant global outage that lasted approximately 150 minutes[1][4]. This marks the first outage of Starlink in 2025 and only the third such event since its launch in 2022[1].
The outage was triggered by a failure in key internal software services that operate the core Starlink network, specifically due to a configuration error during a routine software update aimed at improving inter-satellite communication performance and latency[1][4]. This misconfiguration disrupted the communication links between satellites, causing many ground terminals to lose connection to the internet worldwide.
The outage began around 19:15 UTC (3:15 PM EDT) and lasted until 21:44 UTC (5:44 PM EDT)[3]. The impact was global, affecting users in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, potentially reaching millions of customers given Starlink’s over six million active users at the time[1][2].
SpaceX responded quickly to the situation. They acknowledged the outage publicly via their Starlink X account and website, actively implemented a fix during the outage, and provided updates to users[1]. CEO Elon Musk apologized for the disruption and described the incident as a "cascading failure triggered by a single node update"[1][4]. Starlink VP of Engineering, Michael Nicolls, confirmed the recovery and committed to fully investigating the root cause to prevent recurrence[2][4].
The outage had operational consequences, especially for the Ukrainian military, which relies on Starlink for communication. According to The Kyiv Independent, the service was offline for approximately 150 minutes, which was the longest period during the war that the service was unavailable[4]. This disruption affected frontline communications efforts, underscoring the critical nature of Starlink’s service for certain users.
Despite this recent outage, connection issues with Starlink remain rare for SpaceX’s service[1]. Starlink is deeply committed to providing a highly reliable network and will fully resolve the cause of the outage and ensure it does not happen again.
[1] SpaceX (2025). Starlink Global Outage: Causes, Impact, and Resolution. Retrieved from https://www.spacex.com/news/2025/07/24/starlink-global-outage-causes-impact-resolution
[2] Nicolls, M. (2025, July 24). Starlink service fully restored. Retrieved from https://www.starlink.com/status
[3] Musk, E. (2025, July 24). Apology for Starlink outage. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1418389535670418433
[4] The Kyiv Independent (2025, July 24). Starlink outage disrupted Ukrainian military communications during Russia conflict. Retrieved from https://www.kyivindependent.com/news/starlink-outage-ukraine-military-communications-russia-conflict-6596827
What caused the outage of Starlink's satellite internet service on July 24, 2025, was a configuration error during a routine software update aimed at improving science, specifically related to space-and-astronomy and technology, such as inter-satellite communication performance and latency? Despite this incident, SpaceX and Starlink are committed to using science, technology, and space-and-astronomy to build a highly reliable network and prevent such outages from happening again.
