# TerraSAR-X 3D model

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

Free 3D model of TerraSAR-X, a satellite, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 8,768 triangles, 52 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Satellites
- **Mission:** Earth observation
- **Triangles:** 8,768
- **File:** terrasar-x.glb, 52 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 5.0 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-10-14
- **NORAD:** 31698
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/terrasar-x.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/terrasar-x.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=terrasar-x
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-31698
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** TerraSAR-X 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/terrasar-x/

## 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 DLR's render of TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X (DLR, CC BY 3.0).

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)

## Dimensions

- Body length: 5 m
- Body across corners: 2.4 m
- Antenna long: 4.8 m
- Antenna wide: 0.8 m
- Antenna thick: 0.15 m
- Boom: 3.3 m

Source: eoPortal, https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/terrasar-x, OPENED 2026-10-13: 'The TSX bus has a total height of about 5m with a diameter of roughly 2.4m'; 'The SAR antenna is mounted upon the hexagonal side of the spacecraft, which in flight points toward 33.8° off the nadir.'; 'The S/C bus design features a central hexagonal CFRP structure as the main load-carrying element.'; 'Three sides of the hexagon are populated with electronic equipment, while the sun-facing side is additionally carrying the solar array.'; 'The other nadir-looking side is reserved for the accommodation of an S-band TT&C antenna, a SAR data downlink antenna - carried by a deployable boom of 3.3 m length in order to avoid RF interferences during simultaneous radar imaging and data transmission to the ground - and a Laser Retro Reflector'; 'The deep-space-looking surface is used for the LCT (Laser Communication Terminal) and as a thermal radiator.'; 'Antenna aperture size 4.8 m x 0.8 m x 0.15 m'; 'Phase centers 12 (az.) x 32 (el.)'; 'The solar array is of size 5.25 m 2'; 'Sun-synchronous circular dawn-dusk orbit with a local time of ascending node at 18:00 hours'. eoPortal, https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/tandem-x, OPENED 2026-10-13: 'TanDEM-X is identical to its twin, TerraSAR-X'. eoPortal, https://www.eoportal.org/satellite-missions/paz, OPENED 2026-11-04, of PAZ: 'PAZ is an X-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) spacecraft based on the TerraSAR-X platform', 'PAZ is built on a Service Module (SM) platform based on that of TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X.', 'Length: 5m, diameter = 2.4 m', 'a deployable boom of 3.3 m length', 'Body-fixed solar array of size 5.25 m2', 'The SAR antenna (with a size of 4.8 m x 0.7 m)'; DLR, https://www.dlr.de/en/rb/research-operation/missions/earth-observation-science/paz, OPENED 2026-11-04: 'Operating the three almost identical satellites in a constellation.' THE DIFFERENCE THE PAGES GIVE: PAZ's antenna is 0.7 m wide where this file draws TerraSAR-X's 0.8 m (eoPortal's TerraSAR-X figure); the file is not changed for it, and the card says 'details simplified'. DERIVED: 2.4 m read as the hexagon across its corners, so 2.08 m across the flats and faces 1.2 m wide; 5.25 m2 as 4.9 x 1.07 m. READ OFF DLR'S RENDER: that the solar array is on the face opposite the antenna; the gold foil; the boom's lean toward one end; the dark forward end. OURS: a regular hexagon (the real section is not said to be regular); the pale patches on the two side faces; the laser terminal's box; the antenna's twelve panels drawn as tiles.

## References

- [TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites in formation flight over Europa](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TerraSAR-X_and_TanDEM-X_satellites_in_formation_flight_over_Europa.jpg), DLR (CC BY 3.0 (DLR, German Aerospace Center; the Commons API's LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-13))