Space Radar Models
Subscribe

SERT 2

Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

Turn it in 3D

SERT 2, 3D model, three-quarter view

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

  • SERT 2, three-quarter viewThree-quarter view
  • SERT 2, from the sideFrom the side
  • SERT 2, from behindFrom behind
  • SERT 2, from aboveFrom above

About this model

SERT 2 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 16,940 triangles in a 126 kB glTF file, and is 7.9 m across at full scale.

On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 4327, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.

Dimensions and their sources

MeasureValue
Length7.92 m
Diameter1.525 m
Agena length6.25 m
Wing length6 m
Wing width1.525 m

Goldman, Gurski and Hawersaat, Description of SERT II spacecraft and mission, NASA TM (1970), ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19710002423, OPENED 2026-10-20: 'The satellite is 1.525 meters in diameter and 7.92 meters long'; 'The SERT II Agena is 6.25 meters long by 1.525 meters in diameter, with a modified aft equipment rack'; the spacecraft 'a right circular cylinder 53.4 centimeters high and 149 centimeters in diameter'; 'Six meters of solar array extend outward on both sides of the Agena aft end equipment rack', 'a width of 1.525 meters'; 'nose down with the thrusters pointed toward Earth'; thrusters 'offset by 10 deg from the vertical'. Array report (NTRS 19710013187), Fig. 3: '45 panels per wing arranged in 15 by 3', one wing 5.8 m and the other reaching 6.5 m from the centre line (built so). Stations along the stack read off Jones's Fig. 1A at its own scale (6.223 m). OURS: truss tubes, the thrusters' bodies, the spiral disc, the plates, the whips' length and cant (read 2026-10-20)

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 NASA's published dimensions; compared with NASA's photographs and painting (public domain).

The full record

built by this project in code (release 1.3.0 stage W3-a's part library, lib.py, and one script a craft, kept with the stage's notes); no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh: NASA's 3D Resources (1 583 paths) and NASA Science's 3D models have none of this craft (read 2026-10-20)

Where the map uses it. NORAD 4327 (SERT 2), by id; public #1094. The catalogued object is SERT 2 still joined to its Agena D stage, which is what the file is. Built to the app's axes: the thrusters on +Z (they 'pointed toward Earth'), the wings along X with their cells to +Y

Licence note. The shape is this project's, under this repository's licence, built from NASA's published numbers (facts). Every picture it was compared with is NASA's (public domain); NASA's Agena Target Vehicle model was looked at only, for the Agena's body.

References 4

What the shape was compared with. None of these pictures is in the file.

  1. SERT-2 ion propulsion research satellite artist concept (NASA C-70-2041)NASA Lewis Research CenterPublic domain (NASA; Commons LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20)
  2. SPACE ELECTRIC ROCKET TEST, SERT II IN TANK 5 (GRC-1968-C-03031)NASA Glenn Research CenterPublic domain (NASA; Commons LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20)
  3. Jones, Recovery of thrust magnitude from Minitrack data for the SERT-II spacecraft, GSFC X-552-70-448NASA GSFCPublic domain (NASA report)
  4. SERT II solar array reportNASA Lewis Research CenterPublic domain (NASA report)

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:

SERT 2 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Any 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=sert-2" title="SERT 2, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>

New models, by email

One email when new models are added. Nothing else.

We keep your address and the lists you pick, nothing else. No tracking pixels, no rewritten links. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe. Privacy.

Related models

Sputnik 1, 3D model
satellite

Sputnik 1

Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

3,032 triangles25 kB29 m across

Curiosity's descent stage, 3D model
crewed craft or station

Curiosity's descent stage

Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

7,798 triangles78 kB4.1 m across

rocket stage

Falcon 9 first stage

Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

22,112 triangles141 kB41 m across

R-7 (8K72K) core and Blok E, 3D model
rocket stage

R-7 (8K72K) core and Blok E

Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

39,056 triangles292 kB38 m across