Inmarsat-4
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
Inmarsat-4 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 11,298 triangles in a 90 kB glTF file, and is 45 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 |
|---|---|
| Body x | 2.9 m |
| Body y | 2.3 m |
| Body z | 7 m |
| Span | 45 m |
| Reflector | 9 m |
| Array power kw bol | 14 |
| Mass | 5959 kg |
J. McDowell, 'General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects' (GCAT), planet4589.org/space/gcat , satcat.tsv of 2026-10-26, OPENED 2026-10-27 (licence on the page: 'GCAT is released under the Creative Commons CC-BY licence'); columns Length, Diameter, Span, Shape: INMARSAT 4 F1 to F3 'Length 7.0, Diameter 2.9, Span 45.0' m, shape 'Box + 2 Pan' (F2 and F3 'Box + 2 Pan + Dish'). Astrium's 2005 press kit, 'First Inmarsat-4 satellite ready for launch', spaceref.com/?p=42959 , read through a search result of 2026-10-27: 'Main body dimensions: 7 x 2.9 x 2.3m'; 'Solar array span: 45m'; 'Solar array power: approximately 14 kW at beginning of life'; 'the unfurlable antenna reflector has a diameter of about 10 metres'. Northrop Grumman (Astro Aerospace) as quoted in the same search: 'three 9-meter AstroMesh reflectors'. Gunter's Space Page, space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/inmarsat-4.htm , OPENED 2026-10-27: 'Eurostar-3000GM'; 2 deployable solar arrays; mass 5959 kg. TWO PAGES DISAGREE on the reflector (9 m, 'about 10 m'): the 9 m of the maker of the reflector is built. NOT CITED: the panels' number and width, the reflector's place and tilt, the feed array's size and count, the thrusters. (read 2026-10-27)
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 (McDowell's GCAT, CC BY; Astrium's press kit; no free picture of the craft).
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 Science's 3D models and NASA's 3D Resources have none of this craft, and the maker and the operator publish none under terms that allow a derivative); the layout and its sources are under `references` and `dimensions`
Where the map uses it. INMARSAT 4-F1, 4-F2 and 4-F3 (28628, 28899, 33278): Astrium's Eurostar E3000 with a 9 m mesh reflector and two long wings, 45 m tip to tip. They wore the geostationary stand-in `bus-ssl1300`; Inmarsat-4A F4 and Inmarsat-5 are other shapes; public #1122
Licence note. The numbers are McDowell's GCAT (CC BY 4.0, cited under `dimensions`); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence. NO FREE PICTURE OF THE CRAFT WAS FOUND: the layout was read off an artist's render on Gunter's Space Page, LOOKED AT ONLY (not fetched by the tool, on no sheet, nothing of it 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.
- inmarsat-4__1Gunter's Space Page (the render's maker is not named there)an artist's render on Gunter's Space Page (copyright of its maker): LOOKED AT ONLY for the layout: the round mesh reflector standing off the Earth end on a boom, the long five-panel wings, the gold body; not fetched by the tool, on no sheet, nothing of it in the file
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:
Inmarsat-4 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=inmarsat-4" title="Inmarsat-4, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
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