PACE
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
PACE 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 7,116 triangles in a 42 kB glTF file, and is 4.4 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 58928, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 3.2 m |
| Width | 1.5 m |
| Observatory | 1.5 × 1.5 × 3.2 m |
| Array | 4.39 × 2.54 m |
| Array panels | 3 |
NASA's PACE site, pace.oceansciences.org/mission.htm, opened 2026-10-13: 'Dimensions 1.5 m x 1.5 m x 3.2 m (4.9 ft x 4.9 ft x 10.5 ft)'; the stowed drawing's page, pace.oceansciences.org/gallery_more.htm?id=1554, opened 2026-10-13: 'In this perspective, the Ka-band antenna, which will transmit science data, is located at top. Just below is the Ocean Color Instrument'; 'Overall observatory dimensions are 1.5 m by 1.5 m by 3.2 m (4.9 x 4.9 x 10.5 ft)'. NASA's PACE blog, science.nasa.gov/blogs/pace/2024/02/08/meet-nasas-pace-spacecraf…, opened 2026-10-13: 'The PACE spacecraft stands about 10 feet tall'; 'The spacecraft's solar array is made of three panels. The array measures 100 inches by 173 inches' (2.54 x 4.39 m). THE ISSUE'S eoPortal LINK IS ANOTHER PACE (a 2U CubeSat of 100 x 100 x 243 mm) and gave nothing. NOT CITED, read off NASA's renders: the split of the 3.2 m into a 2.3 m bus and the instrument end, the Ocean Color Instrument's 0.9 x 0.9 x 0.8 m and its place, the Earth shield's 1.4 m, the dish's 0.6 m, both polarimeters' sizes and places, the wing's beam (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 renders and drawings of PACE.
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 58928 (PACE), in the whole active catalogue: NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem observatory. It had no route and was drawn as the generic satellite, a box with a dish; public #954
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.
- Ocean Color Instrument, annotated (December 2018)NASAPublic domain (NASA; the PACE project's own site, which credits its pictures to NASA and carries no other credit on this one)
- Beauty Shot of the PACE SpacecraftNASAPublic domain (NASA; the page says 'Credit: NASA')
- PACE Observatory Diagram (Stowed Solar Panel)NASAPublic domain (NASA; the PACE project's own site)
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:
PACE 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=pace" title="PACE, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
