NISAR
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
NISAR 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 10,208 triangles in a 76 kB glTF file, and is 12 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 65053, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Body length | 5.5 m |
| Array length | 5.5 m |
| Array panel | 1.8 × 2.2 m |
| Reflector diameter | 12 m |
| Boom length | 9 m |
JPL press kit, quick facts, jpl.nasa.gov/press-kits/nisar/quick-facts, opened 2026-10-13: 'Length of spacecraft bus and radar instrument payload: about 18 feet (5.5 meters)'; 'Length of solar panels: two deployable arrays, each just over 18 feet (5.5 meters)'; 'Radar antenna reflector diameter: about 39 feet (12 meters)'; 'Boom length for radar antenna reflector: about 30 feet (9 meters)'. JPL press kit, spacecraft, jpl.nasa.gov/press-kits/nisar/mission-overview/spacecraft, opened 2026-10-13: 'Nearly 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter and resembling a snare drum, the radar antenna reflector is mounted at the end of a 30-foot-long (9-meter-long) boom'; 'Measuring 6 feet (1.8 meters) wide and 7 feet (2.2 meters) long, each array consists of three panels' (three panels of 1.8 m are the 5.5 m of the quick facts; built so). eoPortal, eoportal.org/satellite-missions/nisar, opened 2026-10-13: 'the entire octagonal instrument structure'; 'optical prescription (F/D=0.75)', which for 12 m is a focal length of 9 m and a dish 1 m deep; 'a 0.7m HGA (High Gain Antenna)'. NOT CITED, read off JPL's drawing and side render: the bus (1.9 x 2.0 x 2.2 m) and the instrument structure (an octagon 1.3 m across, 3.5 m long) as the two parts of the 5.5 m, the drum's 1.6 m depth and its 24 bays, where the boom stands and its two bends, the feed's 0.9 x 2.6 m (read 2026-10-13)
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 NASA/JPL-Caltech drawings and artist's concepts of NISAR.
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 NASA pictures under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh (NASA's 3D Resources, science.nasa.gov/3d-resources and github.com/nasa/NASA-3D-Resources, searched 2026-10-13, has none of this craft)
Where the map uses it. NORAD 65053 (NISAR), in the whole active catalogue: the NASA and ISRO radar satellite, a 12 m mesh reflector on a 9 m boom. It had no route and was drawn as the generic satellite, a box with a dish; public #953
Licence note. Public domain (the NASA pictures it was drawn from); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence
References 3
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- NISAR Spacecraft diagramNASA/JPL-CaltechPublic domain (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
- NISAR Side NoTilt 2022NASA/JPL-CaltechPublic domain (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
- NISAR in Orbit (Artist's Concept), PIA26613NASA/JPL-CaltechPublic domain (NASA/JPL-Caltech, Photojournal PIA26613)
_(PIA26613).jpg){kind=link}
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:
NISAR 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=nisar" title="NISAR, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
