SpaceX’s Starlink Rival Goes Dark After Falling to Account for Leap Year

French satellite operator Eutelsat failed to count last year’s leap year, leading to an embarrassing 48-hour service outage.

The OneWeb satellite constellation has restored Internet services after an outage that began on December 31, 2024, Eutelsat. confirmed on Thursday “The root cause has been identified as a software problem in the ground segment,” the company wrote in a brief statement. “The constellation is nominally operating again.”

Joanna Darlington, Eutelsat’s head of communications and investor relations, told Via Satellite that the leap year 2024 “seems to be the most likely cause” for the software bug. The lack of counting for an additional day this year probably disturbed the software of the Internet constellation, resulting in the temporary disruption.

Eutelsat operates a fleet of more than 630 satellites in low Earth orbit. The company has been building its OneWeb constellation since 2020, sending lots of satellites designed to transmit high-speed Internet around the globe.

It has not been an easy road for Eutelsat. The company originally relied on Russia’s Soyuz rocket to launch its satellites, but its relationship with Roscosmos quickly deteriorated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In retaliation against the Western sanctions imposed on Russia, Roscosmos refused to launch OneWeb satellites, unless the company agreed to the list of questions. OneWeb refused, prompted Russia to keep 36 of its satellites in a storage facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The company was then forced to rely on its Internet constellation rival SpaceX, as well as the Indian Space Research Organization, to launch its satellites.

In spite launched its final batch of 36 satellites in March 2023, Eutelsat could not implement broadband coverage worldwide due to delays secure approval for ground infrastructure in key countries such as India, Thailand and Turkey. As a result, OneWeb’s Internet services are currently only available in the Americas, and some parts of Europe and Asia. The company hopes to solve its problems this year, launching its full services by spring, according to him SpaceNews.

Compared to SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, OneWeb is geared toward Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other commercial customers. While Starlink serves end users directly, OneWeb is more of an infrastructure provider rather than a direct consumer service.

Eutelsat recently ordered 100 broadband satellites from Airbus to begin the process of upgrading its constellation in a few years, with the life of its satellites ending sometime between 2027 and 2028. After overcoming its recent glitch, the company also wants to make sure that doesn’t happen. again, so no more excuses in 2028.