The described technology is generally directed towards beam recovery for an antenna array. One or more recovery beams or recovery beam patterns can be defined for an antenna array, and in response to a failure, the antenna array can be restored to a defined recovery beam or recovery beam pattern. Techniques for defining recovery beams and recovery beam patterns for the antenna array, selecting a recovery beam or recovery beam pattern for the antenna array, and entering a selected recovery beam or recovery beam pattern by the antenna array are also disclosed.