# LAGEOS 3D model

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

Free 3D model of LAGEOS, a satellite, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 6,760 triangles, 50 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Satellites
- **Mission:** Earth observation
- **Triangles:** 6,760
- **File:** lageos.glb, 50 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 0.6 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-10-13
- **NORAD:** 8820
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/lageos.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/lageos.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=lageos
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-8820
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** LAGEOS 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/lageos/

## 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 the published arrangement of LAGEOS's 426 retroreflectors and NASA photographs.

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

## Dimensions

- Diameter: 0.6 m
- Cube face diameter: 0.0381 m

Source: D. Arnold, 'Transfer Function of the LAGEOS-2 Retroreflector Array', https://ilrs.dgfi.tum.de/docs/2022/Lageos-2.pdf, opened 2026-10-13: 'The LAGEOS-2 satellite is a sphere 60 cm in diameter with 426 uncoated circular cube corners 1.5 inches in diameter and 1.096 inches in length.' and 'There is one cube corner at each pole and 9 rings of cubes in each hemisphere.'; its Table 1.1 gives each ring's colatitude and count: 10.120 degrees 6, 19.850 12, 29.580 18, 39.310 23, 49.040 27, 58.770 31, 67.017 31, 76.747 32, 85.137 32, and one at the pole: 213 a hemisphere. The same counts in Wood, Otsubo and Sherwood, https://ilrs.cddis.eosdis.nasa.gov/lw13/docs/papers/target_wood_1m.pdf, opened 2026-10-13: 'successive rings have 32, 31, 31, 27, 23, 18, 12, 6, 1 (at the "pole") reflectors, giving a total of 213 in each hemisphere. 422 of the reflectors are made of fused silica and 4 of germanium.' eoPortal, https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/lageos, opened 2026-10-13: 'LAGEOS-II is an identical S/C to LAGEOS-I.', which is why both wear this file. NOT CITED: the longitude each ring starts at

## References

- [LAGEOS-NASA](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LAGEOS-NASA.jpg), NASA (Public domain (NASA))
- [Sts052-80-030 lrg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sts052-80-030_lrg.jpg), NASA (Public domain (NASA))