SpaceX’s Falcon 9 roared into the Florida dawn, shrugging off a recent Starlink outage with a successful launch, according to Breitbart.
On Saturday, at 5:01 a.m. EDT, the company sent 28 satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral’s Pad 40. This mission proves grit over glitches, but questions linger about network reliability.
Just days before, on July 24, Starlink’s network crashed for 2.5 hours, leaving 6 million global users stranded.
The outage, starting at 4 p.m., wasn’t fully resolved until 8 p.m. SpaceX’s reusable rocket triumph feels like a middle finger to tech fragility.
The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster, a veteran of 22 missions, including Crew-6, powered this launch. It landed flawlessly on the “A Shortfall of Gravitas” drone ship eight minutes after liftoff. That’s 119 landings for that ship alone, and SpaceX’s 480th overall.
SpaceX’s launch cadence is a machine, with this being the 91st Falcon 9 mission of 2025. Over 8,000 Starlink satellites now crowd low-Earth orbit, per astronomer Jonathan McDowell. That’s a lot of space hardware for a company that occasionally leaves customers offline.
The outage’s cause? A failure in “key internal software services,” says Michael Nicholls, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink Engineering.
Sounds like a fancy way of saying the system choked on its code. Hardly reassuring for 2 million U.S. users who expect a seamless internet.
“We apologize for the temporary disruption,” Nicholls said, vowing to “fully root cause this issue.” Fine words, but when your network serves millions, “temporary” feels eternal to users. Actions, not apologies, will keep Starlink’s reputation intact.
Starlink’s 6 million customers, built since its 2021 debut, show its global reach. Yet, a 2.5-hour blackout reveals the cracks in rapid expansion. Scale is great, but not if it sacrifices stability.
The July 26 launch was a flex of SpaceX’s engineering muscle. Cape Canaveral’s Pad 40 has seen countless liftoffs, and this one added to the tally. But the outage looms larger than the launch in customers’ minds.
SpaceX’s drone ship landing was picture-perfect, a testament to reusable rocket tech. The “A Shortfall of Gravitas” caught the booster like a seasoned pro. Meanwhile, Starlink’s network reliability seems less choreographed.
The outage’s timing, just two days before the launch, couldn’t have been worse. Starlink’s promise of global connectivity took a hit when service dropped at 4 p.m. on July 24. By 6:30 p.m., most users were back online, but full restoration dragged until 8 p.m.
Nicholls promised to “ensure it does not occur again.” Bold claim for a system juggling 8,000 satellites and millions of users. If SpaceX wants trust, it needs to deliver more than smooth landings.
The Falcon 9’s 22nd mission for this booster shows SpaceX’s knack for recycling rockets. It’s a cost-cutting marvel that keeps launches frequent. Yet, customers care more about consistent internet than rocket reuse stats.
SpaceX isn’t slowing down, with another launch set for July 26, 2025, at 8:55 p.m. PDT from Vandenberg, California. This one will deploy 24 more Starlink satellites from Pad 4E. More satellites, same question: Can the network keep up?
The company’s ability to launch 91 times in 2025 alone is impressive. But Starlink’s outage suggests software isn’t matching hardware’s pace. Users want connectivity, not just constellations.
SpaceX’s mission to blanket the globe with internet is ambitious, but outages erode confidence. The conservative in me admires their hustle, but reliability matters more than rocket theatrics. Let’s hope Nicholls’ team gets it right before the next blackout.
