GLONASS-M
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
GLONASS-M 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 7,588 triangles in a 38 kB glTF file, and is 13 m across at full scale.
It is part of the map’s library; no object on the live map is drawn with it today.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 3.05 m |
| Width | 2.71 m |
| Drum diameter | 1.63 m |
| Drum length | 2.03 m |
| Solar area | 30.85 m² |
| Span | 12.6 m |
V. Mitrikas (MCC), '[IGSMAIL-5104]: GLONASS-M dimensions and center-of-mass correction', 2005-02-16, lists.igs.org/pipermail/igsmail/2005/006475.html, OPENED 2026-10-14: 'please find hereafter the information issued by NPO PM (Krasnoyarsk) concerning modelling of GLONASS-M SV.'; 'SV GLONASS-M permanently supports 3-axis orientation.'; 'OX axis is pointed by SV radius vector from the Earth center. OY axis always lies in Sun-SV-Earth plane and pointed opposite to the Sun direction'; 'Solar panels keep up the Sun direction.'; 'L1 and L2 antenna phase centers coincide and have the following coordinates in the body-fixed RF. X = -2183 Y = +545 Z = 0'; 'Total square of the solar panels is 30.85 sqm'; 'The square of the SV body in XOZ plane is about 4.2 sqm.'; 'SV mass after the separation of the launcher id 1415 kg.' Duan, Hugentobler, Hofacker, Selmke, 'Improving solar radiation pressure modeling for GLONASS satellites', Journal of Geodesy 94:72 (2020), link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00190-020-01400-9 (Open Access, CC BY 4.0), OPENED 2026-10-14: 'The GLONASS-M satellite body consists of two parts: a cylindrical container and boxlike antenna platform. As published by the GLONASS information center (www.glonass-iac.ru), GLONASS-M satellites have a width of 2.71 m and a length of 3.05 m.'; 'the antenna platform of GLONASS-M satellites is larger than the diameter of the cylindrical container'; 'By making use of all the dimension information, we assume that the diameter of the cylinder is 1.63 m, the additional part of the antenna panel above the cylindrical container is 0.5 m, and the length of the cylindrical container is 2.03 m.'; Table 5: '+x 4.530', 'sp 30.850'. eoPortal, eoportal.org/satellite-missions/glonass, OPENED 2026-10-14: 'It uses a three-axis-stabilised, nadir-pointing, pressurised bus with a mass of approximately 1,415 kg'; 'GLONASS-M/-K/-K2 also carry laser retroreflectors'. READ OFF THE CC0 PHOTOGRAPHS OF TWO MODELS: the light drum with a gold far end and a dark band, the white platform at the Earth end with a ring of helices and a bronze retroreflector panel, two wings of four panels in two rows each on a boom between the rows, the booms leaving the drum near its far end. DERIVED: each panel 2.32 x 1.66 m; 12.6 m tip to tip. OURS: the platform's depth, the helices' height and count, the drive housings, the booms' place and the panels' roots. (read 2026-10-14)
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 photographs of models of GLONASS-M by Krassotkin and the Museum of Cosmonautics (CC0).
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 has none of this craft; the survey of 2026-10-13 found no agency model of it under usable terms); no Roscosmos or ISS Reshetnev picture or model was used; the maker's dimensioned drawings, sent to the IGS by the GLONASS information centre, were READ for their numbers and are NOT reproduced
Where the map uses it. the GLONASS-M records (`COSMOS nnnn [GLONASS-M]`), 20 in the live saved data of 2026-10-12, by number as they were: Russia's navigation satellite on the pressurised bus. They wore the procedural drum (scene/models.js NAV_SHAPES `navigation-glonass-m`), which stays as what is drawn while the file loads; public #988
Licence note. CC0 (two visitors' photographs of models of the craft, which the layout was read off: looked at, with credit; nothing of the pictures is in the file); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts). NO ROSCOSMOS OR RESHETNEV PICTURE WAS USED. NO LOGO AND NO LETTERING is on the mesh.
References 2
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- Wikitrip to MAI museum 2016-02-02 073Krassotkin (Wikimedia Commons)CC0 (Krassotkin, own work; the Commons API's LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-14)
- Glonass2 (14988917775)Музей Космонавтики (Wikimedia Commons)CC0 (the Museum of Cosmonautics, Moscow, on Flickr; the Commons API's LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-14)
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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:
GLONASS-M 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=glonass-m" title="GLONASS-M, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
