Starlink is currently experiencing a service outage

Scope and user reports

• Many users across regions (US, Europe, Afghanistan, etc.) report total loss of service around the same time, interpreted as a global or near‑global outage.
• Common symptoms: terminals unable to find satellites, orange modem lights, dishes pointing in unusual directions, and app showing “heating” or “software update” stuck partway.
• Some users saw unexpected public IP changes or router factory resets shortly before the outage.

Reliability and dependence

• Long‑time users say major outages have become rare; some recall the last large coordinated outage in May 2024.
• Several comments highlight how critical Starlink is for rural homes, cabins, and frontline use (e.g., Ukraine), with some maintaining backup WISP/cellular links.
• Despite the outage, many describe Starlink as “spectacular” and more reliable than previous rural options.

Theories and technical analysis

• Strong consensus that the root cause is likely software/configuration, not hardware:
  • Bad config rollout, DNS/BGP or other control‑plane change, or core service discovery failure (analogies to Facebook/Roblox incidents).
  • Centralized control plane for the constellation as a single point of failure.
• Network observations:
  • Cloudflare Radar shows a sharp traffic drop for Starlink’s AS with no BGP withdrawal.
  • Some argue that total loss of signal suggests more than simple routing issues, perhaps affecting satellite–terminal association or control services.
• Multiple users report terminals downloading and installing updates and rebooting as service recovers, consistent with a pushed fix.

Security and geopolitics debate

• Speculation ranges from Russian cyberattacks to space nukes/EMP and hybrid warfare, often tied to Starlink’s role in Ukraine and concurrent UK telecom outages.
• Others push back, calling this evidence‑free geopolitics and pointing to a confirmed statement (quoted from news) that “failure of key internal software services that operate the core network” caused the outage.
• Some discuss how hard it would be to physically destroy the constellation vs. more plausible software, insider, or cyber routes.

Infrastructure / status-page lessons

• starlink.com itself showed “no healthy upstream” and partially failed, likely from both core-network issues and traffic spikes.
• Discussion emphasizes hosting status pages on independent, highly scalable infrastructure and not tying them to the same control plane as production.