SAOCOM
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
SAOCOM 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 9,186 triangles in a 58 kB glTF file, and is 10 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 43641, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Antenna 1 | 10 m |
| Antenna 2 | 3.5 m |
| Antenna panels | 7 |
| Solar wing | 15 m² |
| Stowed height | 4.468 m |
| Stowed diameter | 2.965 m |
eoPortal, eoportal.org/satellite-missions/saocom, OPENED 2026-10-13: 'Dimensions: - h = 4.468 m, Ø=2.965 m stowed envelope - 10 m x 3.5 m (35m2) SAR ActivePhase Array antenna - 15 m2 foldable solar array wing'; 'the communication of the platform with each of the seven panels of the radar antenna was verified'; 'the radar antenna of 35 m2 was fully deployed'; 'making the release of the radar antenna, whose wings were attached to the main body of the satellite to give rigidity to the whole'; 'Each SAOCOM-1 spacecraft (SAOCOM-1A and SAOCOM-1B) has an estimated wet mass of ~1600 kg'; 'The spacecraft platform is of SAC-C heritage'. DERIVED: seven panels of 1.43 x 3.5 m make the 10 m; a solar wing of three panels 4.4 x 3.4 m is the 15 m2. READ OFF CONAE'S RENDER: the bus as an eight-sided body 4.4 m long (the stowed envelope's height) and 1.3 m across, lying on the antenna's back ACROSS its length, with the launch ring at one end; the solar wing of three panels standing beside the bus, leaning; the antenna's back black with gold lines, its hinges; the bus's gold foil and pale radiators. OURS: the lean (40 degrees), the antenna's thickness (0.12 m), the pale Earth-side face (the render shows the back only). (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 CONAE's render of SAOCOM (CONAE, CC BY 4.0).
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 on GitHub, 1 583 paths read 2026-10-13, has none of this craft; the survey of 2026-10-13 found no agency model of it under usable terms)
Where the map uses it. NORAD 43641 (SAOCOM 1A) and 46265 (SAOCOM 1B), in the whole active catalogue: Argentina's L-band radar satellites, a 10 m antenna of seven panels. They were, and while this file is on its way still are, the shared radar blade (scene/models.js `radar`: Sentinel-1's antenna under a bus with two wings); public #978
Licence note. CC BY 4.0 (CONAE's render it was drawn from: looked at for the layout, with credit; nothing of the picture is in the file); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence. NO LOGO AND NO LETTERING is on the mesh.
References 1
What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.
- SAOCOM 3DCONAECC BY 4.0 (CONAE, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, Argentina; argentina.gob.ar)
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:
SAOCOM 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=saocom" title="SAOCOM, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
