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Two long-established Western suppliers of commercial high-resolution Earth observation imagery and satellites: comparing resolution, archives, platforms, and exploration hardware. In October 2025 Maxar Technologies retired its name: Maxar Intelligence became Vantor (Earth observation imagery and geospatial intelligence) and Maxar Space Systems became Lanteris Space Systems (satellite manufacturing), which Intuitive Machines bought in January 2026. This comparison covers the former Maxar business lines against Airbus Defence & Space.[3,4]
Facts checked Oct 11, 2026; each row cites its sources below.
| Metric | Maxar (Vantor / Lanteris) | Airbus Defence & Space |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership[2,3,4,8] | Vantor: private, Advent International (bought Maxar May 2023); Lanteris: Intuitive Machines (since Jan 2026) | Division of Airbus; its Space Systems and Space Digital businesses are slated for a planned joint company with Leonardo and Thales |
| Business Lines[3,4,8] | Vantor: Earth observation imagery and geospatial intelligence; Lanteris: LEO, MEO and GEO satellites | Defence and space businesses, including Space Systems and Space Digital |
| Key EO Satellites[5,10,11] | WorldView-1, -2, -3, GeoEye-1 and six WorldView Legion (WorldView-4 decommissioned 2019) | Pléiades Neo (two satellites), Pléiades, SPOT |
| Best Optical Resolution[5,10] | 31 cm (WorldView-3); 34 cm at nadir (WorldView Legion) | 30 cm native (Pléiades Neo) |
| Imagery Archive[1,11] | About 150 PB Image Library (Dec 2022) | Over 10 years of Pléiades and SPOT imagery (2022) |
| GEO Satellite Platform[1,12] | Lanteris 1300-class platform: 94 in service (Dec 2022) | Eurostar Neo (first: Eutelsat Hotbird 13F) |
| Annual Revenue[1,7] | $1.605B (2022, all of Maxar; last annual report before going private) | EUR 13.4B (Airbus Defence and Space, 2025) |
| Geospatial Platform[1,11] | SecureWatch imagery subscription (as of 2022) | OneAtlas |
| Space Robotics[1,14] | Robotic arms on six NASA Mars rovers and landers (company history, 2022) | European Robotic Arm for the ISS (consortium led by Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands) |
| Exploration Hardware[6,13] | Lanteris builds NASA's Power and Propulsion Element | Prime contractor for the European Service Module of NASA's Orion (selected 2014) |
The U.S. government was the largest customer of Maxar's imagery business; in May 2022 the National Reconnaissance Office awarded it the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) contract, a five-year base contract with up to five one-year options. WorldView-4 stopped collecting imagery after a gyro failure in December 2018. Advent International completed its acquisition of Maxar on May 3, 2023, and the six WorldView Legion satellites launched between May 2024 and February 2025. In October 2025 the imagery business became Vantor, which operates 10 electro-optical satellites led by WorldView-3 (31 cm panchromatic, 1.24 m multispectral), and the manufacturing business became Lanteris Space Systems. Intuitive Machines completed its $800 million purchase of Lanteris on January 13, 2026.[1,2,3,4,5]
Airbus Defence & Space is a division of Airbus. In 2025 it reported revenues of EUR 13.4 billion, EBIT Adjusted of EUR 798 million, and record order intake of EUR 17.7 billion. Its Earth observation fleet includes the two 30 cm Pléiades Neo satellites, for which Airbus advertises daily revisit anywhere, alongside Pléiades and SPOT; its manufacturing line includes the Eurostar Neo telecom platform and the European Service Module for NASA's Orion. In October 2025 Airbus, Leonardo and Thales signed a memorandum of understanding to combine their space businesses in a new company owned 35%, 32.5% and 32.5%, which would take Airbus's Space Systems and Space Digital businesses and was expected to be operational in 2027, subject to regulatory clearances. As of June 2026 the companies had not yet filed for EU approval, and a decision was not expected before the second half of 2027.[7,8,9,10,12,13]
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