Elon Musk’s satellite internet firm Starlink has been hit by a major global outage, leaving tens of thousands of users unable to get online.
Reports of disruption began to surge around 8pm GMT, with over 60,000 global users reporting issues at the peak, according to DownDetector. In the UK alone, more than 10,000 users flagged problems with the service from 8pm.
Most users – around 64 per cent – cited a total blackout, while others reported significant connectivity problems. In total, 59 per cent of complaints were about internet access, with the remaining 41 per cent pointing to a full service failure, which has impacted Ukraine and its effort to wage its defensive war with Russia.
Taking to X, Elon Musk apologised for the blackout, posting: “Sorry for the outage. Service will be restored shortly. SpaceX will remedy root cause to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
SpaceX said it was “actively” working to resolve the issue and thanked customers for their patience.
Starlink has been emailed for comment by the Express.
Ukraine has suffered from the Starlink outage
The outage has sparked particular concern in Ukraine, where a military source with the call sign “Shadow” reported that Starlink had stopped working along the front line.
The service has played a vital role in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, giving forces crucial communication capabilities in areas where normal networks are down. It has also helped to support drone strikes and coordinate artillery.
Why did Starlink go down?
Doug Madory, from internet analysis firm Kentik, said the outage appeared to have started around 3:13pm ET (7:30pm GMT), and noted that incidents of this scale were rare. “They haven’t had one like this in a long time,” he told Reuters.
Frustrated Starlink users took to social media to express their anger. One posted: “You guys gonna reimburse us for this massive outage that’s got me kicked out of work?” Another complained: “I couldn’t attend a meeting, now I’m in serious trouble. You owe us a refund.”