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WASHINGTON — Lunar infrastructure firm Intuitive Machines today announced it will buy Lanteris Space Systems, formerly Maxar Space Systems, from private equity firm Advent International for $800 million. The acquisition, when completed, will expand Intuitive Machine’s traditional focus on space activities aimed at lunar exploration to the more down-to-Earth market in satellite manufacture, including for defense. “This marks the moment Intuitive Machines transitions from a lunar company to a multi-domain space prime, setting the pace for how the industry’s next generation will operate,” said CEO CEO Steve Altemus in the company’s press release. Up to now, the company has only really dipped a toe into the military space market, primarily focused on NASA and commercial lunar exploration efforts. In 2023, Intuitive Machines was one of three firms to land an award, worth $9.5 million, from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under the Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-orbit Nuclear Power (JETSON) program to mature technologies for on-board satellite nuclear fission reactors. The goal of the JETSON program is develop nuclear power sources to provide electricity to spacecraft subsystems such as on-board sensors, communications payloads and computers, with the aim of enabling longer-duration missions through cislunar space, to the Moon and beyond. On Oct. 22, Intuitive Machines announced that it had secured a follow-on JETSON contract from AFRL worth $8.2 million. Maxar Space Systems was re-branded by Advent as Lanteris on Oct. 1 — a move that widely was interpreted as a final step toward a selloff. Advent, like most private equity firms, makes a business out of buying, repackaging and selling companies. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Lanteris manufactures and operates satellite systems. L3Harris last year chose Maxar Space as a subcontractor to build 18 missile tracking satellites under its contract with the Space Development Agency. It also builds the widely sold Maxar-1300 series commercial communications satellites for operations in geosynchronous Earth orbit. At the time of the rebranding, Lanteris published a “roadmap” for the future that included as a first priority its business in national security and defense technology. According to the Intuitive Machines press release, the sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.
