Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
SpaceX has once again captured global attention. But this time, it is not for launching rockets or sending electric vehicles into space. The spotlight is now on its satellite internet service, Starlink. Starlink has grown rapidly, providing internet to remote areas around the world. Recently, the service surpassed six million users globally. However, something unusual has occurred. In just six months, nearly 500 of its satellites were deliberately taken out of orbit. This unexpected move has raised questions.
Starlink’s growth in 2024 was very fast. At the beginning of the year, Starlink had about 2.3 million users worldwide. By the end of the year, that number had doubled to more than 4.6 million. In the first half of 2025, it grew even more, reaching over six million users. In the United States alone, Starlink now has over two million subscribers. This makes it one of the most widely used satellite internet services in the world. Compared to its competitors, it is far ahead. Amazon’s satellite project, called Project Kuiper, is still under development and has no users yet. Another competitor, One Web, focuses only on selling internet access to businesses and not directly to consumers.
But growth does not come without problems. On July 24th, 2025, Starlink had a major service outage. For about two and a half hours, around 60,000 users lost internet access. The problem was caused by a failure in the software that runs Starlink’s main network systems. Musk, addressed the issue quickly and said that service would be restored soon. A few hours later, the Vice President of Engineering at Starlink, Michael Nichols, confirmed that most of the service was working again. This outage was one of the most serious and longest ones in Starlink’s history. Normally, Starlink has a very high reliability rate, close to 99.95 percent uptime. Outages in previous years were shorter and less widespread, often lasting less than one hour.
SpaceX has once again captured global attention. But this time, it is not for launching rockets or sending electric vehicles into space. The spotlight is now on its satellite internet service, Starlink. Starlink has grown rapidly, providing internet to remote areas around the world. Recently, the service surpassed six million users globally. However, something unusual has occurred. In just six months, nearly 500 of its satellites were deliberately taken out of orbit. This unexpected move has raised questions.
Starlink’s growth in 2024 was very fast. At the beginning of the year, Starlink had about 2.3 million users worldwide. By the end of the year, that number had doubled to more than 4.6 million. In the first half of 2025, it grew even more, reaching over six million users. In the United States alone, Starlink now has over two million subscribers. This makes it one of the most widely used satellite internet services in the world. Compared to its competitors, it is far ahead. Amazon’s satellite project, called Project Kuiper, is still under development and has no users yet. Another competitor, One Web, focuses only on selling internet access to businesses and not directly to consumers.
But growth does not come without problems. On July 24th, 2025, Starlink had a major service outage. For about two and a half hours, around 60,000 users lost internet access. The problem was caused by a failure in the software that runs Starlink’s main network systems. Musk, addressed the issue quickly and said that service would be restored soon. A few hours later, the Vice President of Engineering at Starlink, Michael Nichols, confirmed that most of the service was working again. This outage was one of the most serious and longest ones in Starlink’s history. Normally, Starlink has a very high reliability rate, close to 99.95 percent uptime. Outages in previous years were shorter and less widespread, often lasting less than one hour.
