NuSTAR
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
NuSTAR is one of the 203 3D models Space Radar made itself: a space telescope, 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 5,668 triangles in a 43 kB glTF file, and is 11 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 38358, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 10.9 m |
| Width | 1.2 m |
| Mast | 10 m |
| Focal length | 10.15 m |
| Optic outer radius | 0.191 m |
Overall 1.2 x 10.9 m: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuSTAR infobox, read 2026-10-13. Mast 10 m, focal length 10.15 m, mirror shells 51 to 191 mm in radius: eoportal.org/satellite-missions/nustar, read 2026-10-13 ('a 10 m mast is deployed to achieve a focal length of 10.15 m'; 'Shell radii 51 - 191 mm'). NOT CITED, read off the render by eye: the other sides of the optics bench (1.2 x 0.72 x 0.5 m) and of the bus (an octagon 0.98 m across, 0.9 m long), the mast's 0.36 m side, the wing's 2.6 x 1.05 m in five panels (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 artist's concepts of NuSTAR.
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 two NASA/JPL-Caltech renders under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh
Where the map uses it. NORAD 38358 (NUSTAR): NASA's hard X-ray telescope, on the layer of satellites worth knowing. It had no route and was drawn as the generic satellite, a box with a dish; public #964
Licence note. Public domain (the NASA/JPL-Caltech renders it was drawn from); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence
References 2
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- NuSTAR spacecraft model (artist's concept of NuSTAR on orbit)NASA/JPL-CaltechPublic domain (NASA/JPL-Caltech artist's concept)
- NuStar 2NASA/JPL-CaltechPublic domain (NASA/JPL-Caltech artist's concept, PIA15265)
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:
NuSTAR 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=nustar" title="NuSTAR, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
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