OAO-2
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
OAO-2 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 11,520 triangles in a 60 kB glTF file, and is 4.9 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 3597, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 4.9 m |
| Solar area | 38.2 m² |
NASA NSSDC, nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1968-110A, OPENED 2026-10-26: 'This spacecraft carried two experiment packages, which were located centrally within the spacecraft, each viewing space from opposite ends.' The bus is OAO-3's (NSSDC, 1972-065A: 'an octagonally shaped aluminum structure with a 1.21 m hollow central tubular area'). OURS: every size, read off NASA's photograph; OAO-2's own length is not cited by the page.
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 photographs (public domain).
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, 1 583 paths read 2026-10-26, and NASA Science's resources have none of this craft; the agency pages were searched, and no agency model of it under usable terms was found); NASA's own photographs (public domain, Commons) are the reference
Where the map uses it. NORAD 3597, OAO 2, in the live saved data of 2026-10-12: NASA's second Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (1968), a polished octagonal tower with a silver hood on its top tier, two paddles and two balance booms, still up and bright. It wore the generic space-telescope builder; public #1093
Licence note. Public domain (NASA's photograph of OAO-2 in the clean room and NASA's artist's view, which the layout was read off: looked at, with credit; nothing of them is in the file); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts). 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.
- Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2.jpgNASAPublic domain (NASA; read 2026-10-26)
- Orbiting Astronomical Observatory.jpgNASAPublic domain (NASA; read 2026-10-26)
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:
OAO-2 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=oao-2" title="OAO-2, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
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Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.
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Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.
