Maxar's name is no more after rebrand

Maxar Technologies has officially phased out its name eight years after the space and satellite company’s formation and two years after its split into a pair of separately-managed businesses.

Private equity firm Advent International acquired the then-publicly traded Maxar in the spring of 2023 and undertook the split later that fall. The Maxar Intelligence unit took in the earth imagery satellite business, while Maxar Space Systems became the home of spacecraft and infrastructure hardware manufacturing.

As of Wednesday, Maxar Intelligence now goes to market under the name of Vantor and Maxar Space Systems now calls itself Lanteris Space Systems.

Vantor’s lineage traces back to the former DigitalGlobe, which was absorbed into what became Maxar in 2017, while Lanteris’ history includes the former SSL and MDA businesses.

Both Vantor and Lanteris remain portfolio companies of Advent, which undertook the rebranding as a way to give both businesses more clear identities in the market following the split.

While Vantor remains focused on Earth imagery, the business is also continuing to emphasize artificial intelligence and machine learning in its offerings for bringing together data from satellites and other sources like sensors on the ground.

Vantor has also unveiled its new TensorGlobe offering to integrate AI-centric techniques with a digital, 3D twin of the Earth.

“We’re not just a satellite imagery provider. We’re delivering end-to-end solutions capable of connecting sensor data from every domain, providing a unified intelligence picture that can turn into a competitive advantage,” Vandor’s chief executive Dan Smoot said in a release.

Lanteris is touting itself as a defense and space technology company that operates across mission sets such as national security, missile tracking, space infrastructure, deep space exploration and commercial connectivity.

The national security focus also covers secure communications and resiliency in satellite constellations, while space infrastructure covers Lanteris’ manufacturing of power and propulsion technologies.

“Our mission is to deliver mission-critical capabilities in space—faster, smarter, and more resilient than ever before, made possible by the dedication and expertise of our people,” Lanteris’ Chris Johnson said in a release. “From tracking emerging threats to enabling humanity’s push into deep space, we’re building the systems that will define the future of security, communications and exploration.”