# Pléiades 3D model

> Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

Free 3D model of Pléiades, a satellite, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 17,252 triangles, 146 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Satellites
- **Mission:** Earth observation
- **Triangles:** 17,252
- **File:** pleiades.glb, 146 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 13 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-11-04
- **NORAD:** 38012, 48268, 49070
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/pleiades.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/pleiades.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=pleiades
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-38012
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** Pléiades 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/pleiades/

## 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 numbers for Pleiades and from pictures of it by CNES and a scale-model photograph by Tiraden (looked at, not used).

built by this project in code (the private tool model-from-images: assemble.py, from a yaml of primitives, object `optical-pleiades`), from the cited numbers and the pictures under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh of the craft (NASA's 3D Resources on GitHub carry none; the pictures CNES publishes through eoPortal carry no free licence, so they were looked at only)

## Dimensions

- Mass: 940 kg
- Orbit: 694 km
- Solar panel: 2.3 × 1 m
- Solar panels: 3
- Telescope aperture: 0.65 m
- Telescope focal length: 12.905 m
- Instrument envelope: 1.594 × 0.98 × 2.235 m
- Star trackers: 3

Source: eoPortal, 'Pleiades-HR (High-Resolution Optical Imaging Constellation of CNES)', https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/pleiades, OPENED 2026-11-03: 'The bus structure is of hexagonal shape, with three solar arrays positioned at 120 degrees at the top of the platform.'; 'The solar array design (each panel size of 2.3 m x 1.0 m)'; 'a primary mirror size of 650 mm diameter' (a Korsch TMA, focal length 13 m in the text and 12.905 m in the table, f/20); the instrument 'L < 1594 mm, W < 980 mm, H < 2235 mm'; 'three high-accuracy star trackers (SED36) in a quasi tetrahedron configuration'; 'The X-band antenna employs a corrugated horn (omni-directional) with a 64 degree aperture' (on a 2-axis gimbal); 'The total dry mass of the S/C is 940 kg'; orbit 694 km. THE PAGE GIVES NO OVERALL HEIGHT, DIAMETER OR HEXAGON SIZE, no colours and no size for the S-band, X-band or DORIS antennas, and no second page was opened. The text and the table disagree on the focal length (13 m and 12.905 m: the table's was used for the record; the telescope's inside is not drawn to length) and the text names SiC-100 where the instrument section says Zerodur mirrors (not drawn). NOT CITED, READ OFF THE PICTURES AND ESTIMATED, scaled from the 2.3 x 1.0 m panels and the 0.65 m aperture: the hexagon (1.65 m flat to flat, 0.95 m a side), 1.40 m of prism and a 0.85 m taper to 1.0 m flat to flat, a baffle cylinder 0.94 m across and 0.35 m long, the top ring (1.16 m), the radiators and star trackers' sizes and places, the X-band horn and the S-band whips, the arrays' 20 degree tilt toward the zenith and their stays, and the choice of faces (30, 150 and 270 degrees) for the three arrays.

## References

- [Pleiades-HR, eoPortal: 'Schematic layout of the Pleiades outer structure'](https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/pleiades), CNES via eoPortal (credit CNES; no free licence stated on the page: looked at only)
- [Pleiades-HR, eoPortal: 'Artist's rendition of the deployed Pleiades spacecraft' and 'Artist's conception of the Pleiades spacecraft in orbit'](https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/pleiades), CNES via eoPortal (credit CNES; no free licence stated on the page: looked at only)
- [Pleiades-HR, eoPortal: interior structure and instrument accommodation; illustration of the HiRI instrument](https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/pleiades), CNES, TAS via eoPortal (credit CNES, Thales Alenia Space; no free licence stated on the page: looked at only)
- [Pleiades-HR, eoPortal: 'Pleiades-HR1 undergoes radiometric testing'](https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/pleiades), CNES via eoPortal (credit CNES; no free licence stated on the page: looked at only)
- [Pléiades (satellite).jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pl%C3%A9iades_(satellite).jpg), Tiraden (CC BY-SA 4.0 (Tiraden; Commons, read 2026-11-03): looked at only)