CBERS-4A
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.
Turn it in 3D
Open the 3D viewer (www.spaceradar.ai).
The viewer loads when you ask: about 700 kB the first time (three.js and the model), much less after.
Pictures 4
Three-quarter view
From the side
From behind
From above
About this model
CBERS-4A is one of the 203 3D models Space Radar made itself: a satellite, built in code from published dimensions and photographs, with no image-to-3D generator and no one else’s mesh.
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified. It has 7,492 triangles in a 45 kB glTF file, and is 6.3 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 44883, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Height | 2.6 m |
| Bus | 1.8 × 2 × 2.6 m |
| Array | 6.3 × 2.6 m |
| Mass | 1730 kg |
eoPortal, eoportal.org/satellite-missions/cbers-4a, OPENED 2026-10-27: 'CBERS-4A uses a Phoenix Eye 1 bus, designed by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). This three-axis-stabilised bus has dimensions of 1.8 x 2.0 x 2.6 m, with 6.3 x 2.6 m solar array dimensions, and a launch mass of 1730 kg.' The array standing as tall as the body is read off INPE's photographs (007). OURS: the order of the three numbers on the axes (the 2.0 m along the array's own axis), every patch's and instrument's place.
How it was made
Built in code from published dimensions and photographs, with no image-to-3D generator and no one else’s mesh. 3D model: built by Space Radar from published dimensions and INPE's photographs of CBERS-4A (CBERS/INPE – Divulgação).
The full record
built by this project in code (the private tool model-from-images: assemble.py, from a yaml of primitives), from the cited dimensions and the pictures under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh: NASA's 3D Resources (1 583 paths, read 2026-10-27) has none of these craft, and no agency named here publishes a model of its own under terms that allow one
Where the map uses it. NORAD 44883 (CBERS 4A), the one record in the active catalogue of 2026-10-26: INPE's and CRESDA's imaging satellite launched in 2019 on the same Phoenix Eye 1 bus as CBERS-4 in one taller gold box; public #1138
Licence note. INPE's gallery photographs (CBERS-4A in Brazil) were looked at for the layout, with credit; nothing of any picture is in the file. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts). NO LOGO AND NO LETTERING is on the mesh.
References 1
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- CBERS-4A 002, 004, 007 and 014: CBERS-4A being prepared in BrazilCBERS/INPE – DivulgaçãoINPE's gallery: 'Todas as imagens poderão ser reproduzidas, desde que citada a fonte: CBERS/INPE – Divulgação' (all images may be reproduced if the source is cited; the Commons file's own licence text, read 2026-10-27)
Use it
The model is under the MIT licence: use it, change it and share it, in any project, also a paid one. Keep the credit:
CBERS-4A 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT LicenseAny glTF 2.0 loader that reads meshopt compression (EXT_meshopt_compression) opens the file: three.js with its MeshoptDecoder, Babylon.js, model-viewer. Tools such as glTF-Transform can write an uncompressed copy.
Or embed the viewer in your page:
<iframe src="https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=cbers-4a" title="CBERS-4A, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
