OAO-3 (Copernicus)
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-3 (Copernicus) 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 15,560 triangles in a 77 kB glTF file, and is 6.8 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 6153, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 4.9 m |
| Central tube | 1.21 m |
| Solar area | 38.2 m² |
| Balance booms | 6.8 m |
NASA NSSDC, nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1972-065A, OPENED 2026-10-26: 'The OAO 3 spacecraft was an octagonally shaped aluminum structure with a 1.21 m hollow central tubular area, which housed the experiment container. Solar panels were mounted on each side of the spacecraft at angles of 34 degrees and had an area of 38.2 square m. A sun baffle protected the experiments and increased the length of the spacecraft to 4.9 m. Two inertial balance booms, one forward and one aft, extended approximately 6.8 m.' OURS: the octagon's 2.1 m across flats and 3.0 m height, the baffles' tubes, the paddles' panels.
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 NASA's published dimensions and 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 6153, OAO 3 (COPERNICUS), in the live saved data of 2026-10-12: NASA's third Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (1972), a polished octagonal tower under a cluster of sun baffles, with two paddles and two balance booms. It wore the generic space-telescope builder; public #1093
Licence note. Public domain (NASA's photograph of OAO-3 in the clean room, its artist's view and NASA SVS's archive pictures, 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 3
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- Oao-3.jpgNASAPublic domain (NASA; read 2026-10-26)
- 50th Anniversary of NASA's Copernicus Mission (SVS14189 - 72-H-1142 full).jpgNASAPublic domain (NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio; read 2026-10-26)
- 50th Anniversary of NASA's Copernicus Mission (SVS14189 - Copernicus art).jpgNASAPublic domain (NASA; read 2026-10-26)
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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-3 (Copernicus) 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-3" title="OAO-3 (Copernicus), 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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