Galileo IOV
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
Galileo IOV 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 7,436 triangles in a 46 kB glTF file, and is 13 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for 3 catalogued objects, each where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| 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 |
European GNSS Service Centre (EUSPA), 'Galileo Satellite Metadata', 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', esa.int/Applications/Satellite_navigation/Galileo/The_first_four…, 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, ilrs.cddis.eosdis.nasa.gov/missions/satellite_missions/current_m…, 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. (read 2026-11-04)
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).
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 2026-10-13, has none of this craft; the survey of 2026-10-13 found no agency model of it under usable terms)
Where the map uses it. any record of klass satellite whose name has the word GALILEO and a GSAT01nn number (3 records in the live saved data of 2026-11-04: GSAT0101 (GALILEO-PFM), GSAT0102 (GALILEO-FM2), GSAT0103 (GALILEO-FM3), NORAD 37846, 37847 and 38857): the Galileo In-Orbit Validation craft. They were, and while this file is on its way still are, the family navigation box (scene/models.js `navigation`); internal #751. The Full Operational Capability craft (GSAT02nn) wear galileo-foc.glb, a larger box with another antenna layout
Licence note. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts). The scale model it was compared with is CC BY 4.0 (Science Museum Group collection, made by Paragon Creative) and is not in the file. 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.
- Galileo satellite modelScience Museum Group, Paragon CreativeCC BY 4.0 (Science Museum Group collection; the Commons API's LicenseShortName, read 2026-11-04)
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:
Galileo IOV 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=galileo-iov" title="Galileo IOV, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
