COSMO-SkyMed
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
COSMO-SkyMed 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 9,940 triangles in a 58 kB glTF file, and is 5.7 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for 4 catalogued objects, each where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Antenna long | 5.7 m |
| Antenna wide | 1.4 m |
| Solar array total | 18.3 m² |
| Bus section | 1.6 m |
| Bus height | 2.2 m |
eoPortal, eoportal.org/satellite-missions/cosmo-skymed, OPENED 2026-11-05: 'The SAA antenna has dimensions of 5.7 m x 1.4 m (elevation steering range of ±15º), consisting of 40 identical tiles arranged in five identical electrical configurations (5 horizontal electrical panels of 8 vertical tiles each).'; 'The solar arrays of the S/C (total area of 18.3 m2, built by Galileo Avionica)'; 'consisting of the main body (bus), two deployable solar arrays, and a SAR antenna'; 'SVM (Service Module) at the bottom of the bus' and 'PLM (Payload Module) at the top'; 'The mass of each spacecraft is about 1700 kg.' The English Wikipedia says the same of the antenna ('1.4 × 5.7 m'). NO PAGE GIVES THE BUS, THE ARMS OR THE PANELS IN METRES. READ OFF ASI'S DRAWING AND RENDER BY THE CITED 5.7 m: a bus about 1.6 m square and 2.2 m high; each wing as long as the antenna and 1.73 m wide, four panels of 1.325 m by 1.73 m, so that the two wings make the cited 18.3 m2 (2 x 5.3 x 1.73 = 18.3); a boom of 0.9 m from the bus to each wing. OURS: all of those three numbers, the PDHT antenna's size and place, the sun sensors, the thrusters, the foil's seams and the darker band for the payload module, the wires.
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 (eoPortal, ESA) and ASI's and TAS-I's drawings, render and photographs of COSMO-SkyMed, looked at for the layout.
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 on GitHub, 1 583 paths read 2026-11-05, has only RADARSAT-1 of the radar craft and none of this one; the survey of 2026-11-05 found no agency model of it under usable terms)
Where the map uses it. NORAD 31598, 32376, 33412 and 37216 (COSMO-SKYMED 1 to 4), in the whole active catalogue: ASI's four first-generation X-band radar satellites (2007 to 2010) on Alenia's PRIMA bus, drawn as the generic radar blade; public #980. NOT the second generation (CSG-1 to 3): its file `csg` is a larger craft that differs in bus and arrays
Licence note. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts); the pictures are the property of the credit holders named on them, were LOOKED AT for the layout, and are NOT in the file or on any sheet this repository keeps. NO LOGO AND NO LETTERING is on the mesh.
References 3
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- Illustration of the deployed COSMO-SkyMed spacecraft (eoPortal, COSMO-SkyMed page)ASIall rights reserved by ASI, as shown on eoPortal (ESA); looked at, not reproduced
- Artist's rendition of a COSMO-SkyMed spacecraft in orbit (eoPortal, COSMO-SkyMed page)ASIall rights reserved by ASI, as shown on eoPortal (ESA); looked at, not reproduced
- Photo of the active SAR antenna in stowed and deployed configuration (eoPortal, COSMO-SkyMed page)TAS-Iall rights reserved by Thales Alenia Space Italia, as shown on eoPortal (ESA); looked at, not reproduced
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:
COSMO-SkyMed 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=cosmo-skymed" title="COSMO-SkyMed, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
