Shenzhou orbital module

Shape built from published dimensions and pictures; details simplified.

Turn it in 3D

Shenzhou orbital module, 3D model, three-quarter view

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

Shenzhou orbital module is one of the 203 3D models Space Radar made itself: a crewed craft or station, 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 3,080 triangles in a 36 kB glTF file, and is 2.8 m across at full scale.

On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for 3 catalogued objects, each where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.

Dimensions and their sources

Measure	Value
Length	2.8 m
Diameter	2.25 m

Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_(spacecraft), as quoted in the row `shenzhou` (opened 2026-10-13): orbital module 'Length 2.8 m / Diameter 2.25 m'; since Shenzhou 8 'the orbital module in front carries no solar wings' (zh.wikipedia caption quoted there). The docking mechanism's 0.75 m and the curve of the dome are the row `shenzhou`'s, not cited (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 published dimensions and stills by China News Service (CC BY 4.0).

The full record

built by this project in code (tools of release 1.3.0 stage W1-a), from the orbital module's part of the lathe profile of the row `shenzhou` (the cited metres) and the pictures under `references`; no image-to-3D model was used, and no published mesh

Where the map uses it. NORAD 66515, 67481 and 69328 (SZ-21 MODULE, SZ-20 MODULE, SZ-22 MODULE in the live saved data of 2026-10-20), by id: the orbital module each Shenzhou crew leaves in orbit when it goes home. They were the generic satellite; public #1089

Licence note. CC BY 4.0 (China News Service's stills of Shenzhou 21 arriving at the station, which the front's details were read off: looked at, with credit; nothing of them is in the file); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence. NO LETTERING is on the mesh: the white plate where the flight's number is painted is plain

References 2

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

Shenzhou 21 docking with CSS view from CSS 02China News Service (中国新闻社)CC BY 4.0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20)
Shenzhou 21 docking with CSS view from docking hatch 01China News Service (中国新闻社)CC BY 4.0 (Commons' LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-20)

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:

Shenzhou orbital module 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=shenzhou-orbital" title="Shenzhou orbital module, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>