SpaceX is blaming a network upgrade for causing Thursday’s widespread Starlink outage, which temporarily shut down access to the satellite internet system. In a message to resellers, the company attributed the error to an “upgrade procedure,” which involved rolling out software to Starlink’s “ground-based compute clusters,” according to an industry source. The message didn’t elaborate on the upgrade and what it was designed for. But Starlink works by using orbiting satellites to relay data from ground-based antennas and facilities on Earth connected to fiber networks. The message explains that a rare mix of factors during the upgrade caused a disruption in Starlink’s core network by overloading the system while traffic was being distributed across the computing infrastructure. The resulting outage occurred at around noon Pacific Time — right in the middle of day for many US users— when Starlink serves over 6 million customers across the globe. As a result, subscribers across North...