SpaceX Starlink outage caused by expired ground station certificates

SpaceX satellite Internet service saw a global outage over the weekend due to expired security certificates at its ground stations.

Customers saw a multi-hour global outage on April at around 8 pm EST.

“Sorry, slight glitch with SpaceX Starlink. Coming back online now,” CEO Elon Musk tweeted on April 8. “Caused by expired ground station cert. We’re scrubbing the system for other single-point vulnerabilities.”

Though unrelated to the outage, the news follows teething troubles with Starlink’s latest generation of satellites in recent weeks.

In late March, Starlink watchers noted a number of new Starlink satellites – known as v2 minis and launched in late February – were making a number of unexpected altitude changes and demonstrating eccentric orbits.

Musk later tweeted that the new units were “experiencing some issues, as expected,” and the company will be de-orbiting some satellites.

At least one of the new machines has de-orbited, with several others holding low orbits.

This weekend also saw SpaceX successfully deploy Intelsat’s new IS-40e satellite. The Maxar-manufactured Ku-band GEO satellite is set to go live in May and offer throughput for aviation and in-flight WiFi, enterprise SD-WAN, maritime & offshore communications, and rural cell coverage across North and Central America.

Norwegian Cruise Line has officially confirmed it is offering Starlink services aboard its ships.

Reports of Starlink terminals on NCL ships surfaced in January. This week the company said it was testing Starlink aboard the Norwegian Breakaway, and plans to roll out the technology across its entire eight-vessel fleet in a phased manner.

Starlink has received a license to operate in the Bahamas, following recent launches in Ecuador and Haiti. Data Center Dynamics