# Galileo IOV 3D model

> Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

Free 3D model of Galileo IOV, a satellite, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 7,436 triangles, 46 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Satellites
- **Mission:** Navigation
- **Triangles:** 7,436
- **File:** galileo-iov.glb, 46 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 13 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-11-04
- **NORAD:** 37846, 37847, 38857
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/galileo-iov.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/galileo-iov.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=galileo-iov
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-37846
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** Galileo IOV 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/galileo-iov/

## 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 EUSPA's and ESA's published dimensions; compared with a picture of a scale model of a Galileo IOV satellite (Science Museum Group, Paragon Creative, CC BY 4.0).

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 2026-10-13, has none of this craft; the survey of 2026-10-13 found no agency model of it under usable terms)

## Dimensions

- Box 1: 2.611 m
- Box 2: 1.149 m
- Box 3: 1.149 m
- Solar array 1: 5 m
- Solar array 2: 1.082 m
- Span: 13 m

Source: European GNSS Service Centre (EUSPA), 'Galileo Satellite Metadata', https://www.gsc-europa.eu/support-to-developers/galileo-satellite-metadata, OPENED 2026-11-04, section 6.1 'IOV Satellites' (GSAT0101-0103): 'ΔX = 2.611 m', 'ΔY = 1.149 m', 'ΔZ = 1.149 m' (the box in the mechanical RF); '±X - panel = 1.32 m2', '±Y - panel = 3.00 m2', '±Z - panel = 3.00 m2'; section 6: 'The surface area of each solar array amounts to 5.41 m2 (= 5.000 m x 1.082 m).'; section 2.1: 'The +Z axis is normal to the separation plane and points to the same direction of the L-Band Navigation Antenna.', 'The X axis is normal to the clock panel and points towards the clock panel'; its antenna table: the antenna reference point (mechanical RF) at 1375.50, 600.00, 1100.50 mm and the laser retro-reflector at 2298.00, 595.00, 1174.00 mm; its table of surfaces: 'Box -X' 'Carbon filled Kapton (external MLI)' 1.32 m2, 'Box +X' 'Optical surface radiator' 0.78 m2, 'Box +Z' 'Germanium coated black Kapton foil' 1.28 m2, wings 3.88 m2 of 'Solar Cells' and 1.53 m2 of 'Kapton HN (Insulation layer)' a side. ESA, 'The first four satellites', https://www.esa.int/Applications/Satellite_navigation/Galileo/The_first_four_satellites, OPENED 2026-11-04: 'The spacecraft body measures 2.7 x 1.1 x 1.2 metres', 'the deployed solar arrays span 13 metres', 'The antennas, shown on the underside of the body in the picture, always point towards the Earth.', 'The L-band antenna transmits the navigation signals in the 1200-1600 MHz frequency range.', 'The SAR (Search and Rescue) antenna picks up distress signals from beacons on Earth', 'The C-band antenna receives signals containing mission data', 'The infrared Earth sensors and the Sun sensors both help to keep the spacecraft pointing at the Earth.'. ILRS, https://ilrs.cddis.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions/satellite_missions/current_missions/ga01_general.html, OPENED 2026-11-04: the IOV retro-reflector array is 'planar', '84 corner cubes', '33 mm diameter, 23.3 mm height'. DERIVED: each wing's arm is 0.93 m, what is left of ESA's 13 m span after the 1.149 m body and two 5.000 m arrays; the L-band array centred at the cited phase-centre place (0.07 m off the middle toward the clock end). READ OFF THE SCALE MODEL (CC BY 4.0): the hexagonal array of round cups (37 here: the count is ours), the small hexagonal and round antennas and the sensors beside it, the plate of cubes toward the clock end, the lattice frame with a dish at the other end of the Earth face, the pale cross-shaped radiator on the clock end, the arms with an orange drive block and the two-panel arrays with grey frames. NOT CITED: every small part's size and exact place except the two the metadata gives.

## References

- [Galileo satellite model](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galileo_satellite_model.jpg), Science Museum Group, Paragon Creative (CC BY 4.0 (Science Museum Group collection; the Commons API's LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-04))