Planet Pelican
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
Planet Pelican 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 7,126 triangles in a 61 kB glTF file, and is 0.6 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for 9 catalogued objects, each where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Width | 0.56 m |
| Depth | 0.56 m |
| Height | 0.4 m |
| Mass | 120 kg |
| Power | 600 W |
eoPortal, eoportal.org/satellite-missions/planet-pelican, OPENED 2026-10-27: Table 2 'Dimensions (m) 0.56 x 0.56 x 0.40', 'Bus mass excluding payload (kg) 120', 'Power Generation (W) 600'. TWO FIGURES DISAGREE: Table 1 says 'Size (bus) 3 x 1.2 x 0.8 m' and '~ 200 kg per satellite'. We built Table 2's bus and read Table 1's 3 m as the deployed span (four panels of 0.56 x 0.61 m make 3.04 m). OURS: the panels' size, the hinges, the baffle's depth, the wall fittings, the cell grid (Planet's picture shows the panels plain grey and does not show the cell side) (read 2026-10-27)
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 eoPortal's published dimensions; compared with the operator's pictures, looked at only.
The full record
built by this project in code (release 1.3.0's part library, lib.py and parts.py, kept with the stage's notes in ~/space-radar-handoff/release-1.4/r14-m5/build, one script a craft), 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 2026-10-27) has none of this craft, and no operator of it was found to publish a model under a free licence (searched 2026-10-27)
Where the map uses it. the Planet Pelican 30 to 50 cm imagers on Planet's SmallSat platform, 9 in the live saved data of 2026-10-12: NORAD 58296, 62631, 65315, 65316, 66667, 66703, 69018, 69019, 69871 (Pelican-1 to -11). The Doves have a procedural shape of their own; Pelicans had none; public #1150. eoPortal says all Pelicans use the same platform
Licence note. No operator picture or model is in the file: the pictures named `LOOKED AT ONLY` were looked at for the layout and are on no sheet. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts). NO LOGO, FLAG OR LETTERING is on the mesh.
References 2
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- Artist's depiction of Pelican-1 in orbit (eoPortal figure 1)Planet Labslooked at only; not free
- The Planet SmallSat Bus (eoPortal figure 2)Planet Labslooked at only; not free
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:
Planet Pelican 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=planet-pelican" title="Planet Pelican, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
