From Maxar to Vantor: Rebrands and Reality in Earth Observation
Satellites, Rebrands, and reality checks
In October 2025 Maxar Intelligence became Vantor, while Maxar Space Systems rebranded as Lanteris. What lies behind this change of name, and what does it reveal about the Earth Observation and satellite manufacturing sector?
To understand Maxar’s journey, we need to start from Voyager – and then walk our way back.
Voyager 1 and 2, both launched in 1977, are now about 25 and 29 billion km from Earth. Both still beam data home thanks to their high-gain antennas - built not by NASA, but by Ford Aerospace in Palo Alto. The same Ford that makes F-150s. Imagine ordering a truck and getting a deep-space antenna as a free upgrade.
But the story starts even earlier. Philco, an electronics company out of Philadelphia, built the first active repeater satellite in 1960 (Courier 1B) and ran NASA’s Mercury tracking stations. Fun fact: in 1906, when it was still the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, Philco made batteries for electric vehicles—basically, the OG Tesla.
Ford bought Philco in ’61, spun up Ford Aerospace, and those folks built Voyager’s antennas. Loral Electronics Corporation, a defense contractor founded in 1948 in New York making radar and sonar for the US navy, snagged Ford Aerospace in 1990 and rebranded it Space Systems/Loral (SSL).
Meanwhile, across the Bay in Oakland, WorldView Imaging Corporation was founded in ’92. After a game of corporate musical chairs—which included Ball Aerospace, EarthWatch, DigitalGlobe, and a GeoEye acquisitions —the satellite imaging company became EarthWatch Incorporated in 1995, and eventually DigitalGlobe in 2001.
In 2012, Canadian firm MDA bought SSL for $875M, and in 2017, MDA and DigitalGlobe merged into MAXAR for $2.4B, betting heavy on U.S. government contracts. The Canadians however promptly peeled MDA back out in 2019 for $756M, while Advent International scooped up Maxar in 2023 for $6.5B.
Now MAXAR has rebranded the old pieces again: DigitalGlobe’s side is “Vantor,” SSL’s side is “Lantris.” Corporate branding consultants everywhere rejoice.
So what’s next? I expect that Advent will eventually spins them out—Vantor to the public markets, Lantris to whoever wants a satellite factory. But here’s the thing:
● Selling pixels has a ceiling. There are only so many government contracts, and commercial demand never lived up to the hype.
● Selling satellites isn’t limitless either. The mega-constellations (Starlink, Kuiper, Planet, etc.) build their own. Everyone else needs a handful, not hundreds.
The real question, if we want to read between the lines and truly analyze the direction of the market, is why the EO industry pivoting away from data and toward hardware—satellites as the “new hot thing”? It’s being spurred on by government money and a dash of market FOMO. But I think there’s a hangover coming. Once the small-sat buzz wears off, reality will hit: there aren’t that many buyers of buses (especially commercially).
In the end, Maxar’s history isn’t just corporate churn—it’s perhaps a mirror held up to Earth observation and satellite manufacturing as a whole: brilliant tech, government-heavy revenues, endless rebrands, and hard ceilings.
So maybe the real question isn’t about Maxar—it’s how does this industry finally break free of its own gravity well?
Stay tuned.
Tushar Prabhakar is an entrepreneur who resides with his family in San Francisco. He previously worked at SSL prior to founding Orbital Sidekick (OSK). At OSK he’s been focused on making inroads into the commercial market with hyperspectral data. His background is in Aerospace Engineering, loves aviation and space, an avid F1, Cricket and (American) College Football fan.
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