The causes of the global failure of the Starlink satellite Internet have been identified

Last weekend, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet system experienced a global outage. The breakdown was caused by an expired security certificate for ground stations, which left the company’s customers without access to the Internet for several hours.

«We're sorry, there was a minor outage at SpaceX Starlink. We are currently working on getting back online,» SpaceX CEO Elon Musk commented on the failure.

Despite the fact that the problem was resolved relatively quickly, this is not the first time that the Starlink network has suffered from disruptions or malfunctions in recent years. In late March, there were reports that some of the new Starlink satellites were moving on a strange trajectory and changing their altitude on their own.

Also on April 4, it became known that one of the Starlink V2 Mini satellites had fallen out of orbit and crashed to Earth. Elon Musk admitted that the satellites «had some problems» and that some of them would be de-orbited ahead of schedule due to malfunctions. At the same time, those that remain will undergo retesting. Space researchers are confident that the recently crashed V2 Mini will not be the only SpaceX satellite to suffer such a fate.

At the same time, China aims to defeat Musk’s monopoly and is preparing to launch its telecommunications satellites in low Earth orbit to provide broadband Internet access. The first 30 vehicles under the Guowang program will be launched at the end of 2023, with a total of 13,000 satellites planned.