Key Takeaways
1. The longest Starlink outage occurred on July 25, affecting many users for at least 2.5 hours.
2. The outage was caused by issues with key internal software services that manage the core network.
3. Starlink operates over 100 gateways in the U.S. to enhance Internet service in remote areas.
4. SpaceX is upgrading ground stations for upcoming V3 satellites, which will significantly increase data capacity.
5. Despite the outage, some users experienced improved download speeds afterward, suggesting a positive network enhancement.
Starlink Internet interruptions are quite rare, as the network has mostly remained stable since SpaceX began launching its initial Starlink satellites into orbit.
A Surprising Outage
Therefore, the longest Starlink outage since its launch took many by surprise on Friday, July 25. Many of its six million users across the US and worldwide experienced a lack of satellite Internet for at least 2.5 hours, with some being affected for even longer.
For the first time, Starlink issued a global outage alert on its website and managed to fix the problem relatively quickly for most users on the same day. SpaceX expressed its regret and explained that the issue was due to “key internal software services that operate the core network,” possibly pointing to the largest ground network supporting a satellite constellation ever created.
Technical Infrastructure
In the United States, Starlink runs over 100 gateways, each equipped with 150 antennas, to help eliminate dead zones and enhance ping for users in remote areas and rural settings. These antennas are produced in Redmond, WA, and are designed to channel the satellite Internet signal through the country’s extensive fiber optic infrastructure, thus enhancing coverage, reducing latency, and stabilizing connections.
SpaceX is currently upgrading its ground stations in anticipation of launching its V3 satellites, which promise to deliver 10 times the data throughput of the current models, reaching up to 1 Tbps. For context, the Starlink Mini dish has a maximum speed of 100 Mbps, while only the Performance dish can utilize gigabit speeds. With each launch of V3 satellites in 2026, SpaceX plans to add 60 Tbps of network capacity, necessitating a new generation of terrestrial gateways to support this growth.
Stability Concerns
Regrettably, the ground-based network of Starlink can sometimes create instability, as was evident during the recent lengthy outage. A memo from SpaceX shared with suppliers revealed that a software update sent to the Starlink gateways overloaded their hardware, causing the network to stop processing data packets while the core update was being implemented.
Although SpaceX provided the usual explanations and reassurances that they had learned from this incident, users of Starlink began to observe a surprisingly positive change over the weekend. After the outage, some users reported that their download speeds increased by three times or more, suggesting that the unfortunate update to the gateways was not merely a bug fix, but rather a significant network enhancement.
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