R-7 (8K72K) core and Blok E
Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.
Turn it in 3D
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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
R-7 (8K72K) core and Blok E is one of the 203 3D models Space Radar made itself: a rocket stage, 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 39,056 triangles in a 292 kB glTF file, and is 38 m across at full scale.
It is part of the map’s library; no object on the live map is drawn with it today.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 38.246 m |
| Span | 10.303 m |
| Central block length | 28.131 m |
| Strap on length | 19.608 m |
| Blok e length | 2.98 m |
| Core diameter | 2.95 m |
| Strap on diameter | 2.68 m |
| Blok e diameter | 2.56 m |
THE CUTAWAY of 'R-7 vostok.jpg' (Commons, public domain, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:R-7_vostok.jpg, read 2026-10-28) has the metres written on it: 'головной обтекатель' (the shroud), '38246' (overall), 'Блок III ступени 2980', 'Центральный блок I-II ступеней 28131', 'Боковой блок I ступени 19608', and '10303' across the rudders; the joints are placed where that drawing puts them (the shroud's base at 31.5 m, the truss between 27.2 and 28.4 m). Diameters: ru.wikipedia 'Восток (ракета-носитель)', read 2026-10-28: the central block 'largest diameter 2,95 m', the side blocks 'largest diameter 2,68 m', 'one four-chamber main engine plus 4 steering chambers' on the central block and 'plus 2 steering chambers' on each side block, block E with 'a single-chamber engine RD-0109 ... 54,5 kN ... with 4 steering nozzles'; Astronautix 'Vostok 8K72K' (astronautix.com/v/vostok8k72k.html, read 2026-10-28): block E 2.56 m across and 2.84 m long. THE SOURCES DISAGREE: ru.wikipedia gives the central block 28.75 m and the side blocks 19.8 m; Astronautix 19 m, 28 m and a height of 30.84 m without the shroud; the DRAWING'S numbers are built because they add up (28.131 + 2.98 + the shroud = 38.246 less the truss). THE SHROUD'S 6.75 m and its 2.72 m width, the strap-ons' cone (a straight taper from 2.68 m at 4.6 m to a point at 19.6 m, the inner side standing straight against the core), the tail drums, the rudders' reach (1.0 m beyond the strap-on, which makes the cited span), the hatches, the truss's twelve pairs of struts and every fitting are READ OFF THE PHOTOGRAPHS and are ILLUSTRATIVE in the metre. NOT CITED: the truss and shoulder dimensions; the shroud's wall. (read 2026-10-28)
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; compared with museum photographs of the R-7 at VDNKh and Kaluga (CC BY, CC BY-SA) and a Russian cutaway drawing (public domain).
The full record
built by this project in code (tools/vostok-builder/, release 1.5.0 stage r15-c2: vlib.py on the stage builder of 1.4.0, r7.py); no agency or museum 3D model of this craft exists under a free licence (read 2026-10-29): NASA 3D Resources' file listing (1 583 paths, the GitHub tree of nasa/NASA-3D-Resources) has nothing of Vostok or the R-7 (its one Soyuz is the Apollo-Soyuz one); the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum records show physical models only (its 3D site was down); Wikimedia Commons has no 3D file of any of them; the downloadable meshes a web search found (CGTrader, MyMiniFactory, RenderHub, Unity) are sold or personal-use only. So it is built, as the quality bar says: from opened dimensions and many pictures of the flown hardware and the museum copies. No image-to-3D model was used and no published mesh.
Where the map uses it. MOMENTS (internal spec 0079, stage C2, internal #1051): the R-7 8K72K 'Vostok-K' that launched Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961, in the parts it comes apart in (the four strap-on blocks, the core with its truss, block E, the shroud). No record draws it yet: the Moments player (stage C1) loads it by id and finds the parts by node name. The craft it carries is the row `vostok-3ka`, which stands on the adapter at `attach.vostok-3ka`.
Licence note. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from published numbers (facts). Every picture it was compared with is listed under references; each was only looked at, none was traced, copied or projected, and the share-alike ones (CC BY-SA) are credited all the same.
References 9
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- R-7 vostok.jpg (Russian cutaway of the Vostok launcher with its dimensions)SoM33 (Wikimedia Commons)Public domain (Commons LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-28)
- Vostok rocket drawing.pngNASAPublic domain (NASA; Commons LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-28)
- Vostok-K Carrier Rocket - VDNKh, Moscow (38921927071).jpgAlan WilsonCC BY-SA 2.0 (Commons, read 2026-10-28)
- Mil Mi-8T helicopter and Vostok 8K72K at VDNKh.jpgDmitry IvanovCC BY-SA 4.0 (Commons, read 2026-10-28)
- Moscow, VDNKh, engine arrangement on the R-7 rocket (10656172226).jpgGennady GrachevCC BY 2.0 (Commons, read 2026-10-28)
- Rocket Vostok in Kaluga.jpgAndrey BaburovCC BY-SA 3.0 (Commons, read 2026-10-28)
- Ракета-носитель «Восток».jpgTatyanakorneevaCC BY-SA 4.0 (Commons, read 2026-10-28)
- Vostok-2M (8A292M) in Korolyov, Moscow Oblast.jpgDmitry IvanovCC BY-SA 4.0 (Commons, read 2026-10-28)
- Block-E rocket stage.pngAlexander MokletsovCC BY-SA 3.0 (Commons, read 2026-10-28)
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_in_Korolyov,_Moscow_Oblast.jpg){kind=link}
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:
R-7 (8K72K) core and Blok E 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=r7-8k72k" title="R-7 (8K72K) core and Blok E, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
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