# Thuraya 3D model

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

Free 3D model of Thuraya, a satellite, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 12,808 triangles, 109 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Satellites
- **Mission:** Communications
- **Triangles:** 12,808
- **File:** thuraya.glb, 109 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 40 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-10-27
- **NORAD:** 27825, 32404
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/thuraya.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/thuraya.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=thuraya
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-27825
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** Thuraya 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/thuraya/

## 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 (McDowell's GCAT, CC BY; Boeing's launch release; no free picture of the craft).

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 Science's 3D models and NASA's 3D Resources have none of this craft, and the maker and the operator publish none under terms that allow a derivative); the layout and its sources are under `references` and `dimensions`

## Dimensions

- Span: 40.4 m
- Reflector long: 16 m
- Reflector short: 12.25 m
- Panels per wing: 5
- C band dish: 1.27 m
- Feed elements: 128
- Mass: 5177 kg

Source: J. McDowell, 'General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects' (GCAT), https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/ , satcat.tsv of 2026-10-26, OPENED 2026-10-27 (licence on the page: 'GCAT is released under the Creative Commons CC-BY licence'); columns Length, Diameter, Span, Shape: Thuraya 2 and 3 'Length 12.2, Diameter 17.0, Span 40.4' m, shape 'Box + Dish + 2 Pan', mass 5177 and 5180 kg. Boeing, 'Launch Set for Boeing Built Thuraya 2 Mobile Communications Satellite', https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2003-06-06-Launch-Set-for-Boeing-Built-Thuraya-2-Mobile-Communications-Satellite , OPENED 2026-10-27 through a search result: 'This antenna will expand to 12.25 meters (40 feet) by 16 meters (52 feet) in orbit.' Wikipedia, 'Thuraya', OPENED 2026-10-27: 'The two solar-panel wings, each containing five panels, generate 11 kW electric power. The craft has two antenna systems: a round C-band antenna, 1.27 meters in diameter and a 12 x 16 meter AstroMesh reflector, 128 element L-band antenna'. Gunter's Space Page, https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/thuraya-2.htm , OPENED 2026-10-27: 'Boeing GEM (Geomobile) series ... derived from the Boeing BSS-702 body-stabilized design'; 'L-band 128 active elements'. NOT CITED: the body's size, the panels' width, where the reflector stands and how it is tilted, the horns' size, the thrusters.

## References

- [thuraya-2__1](https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/thuraya-2.htm), Gunter's Space Page (the render's maker is not named there) (an artist's render on Gunter's Space Page (copyright of its maker): LOOKED AT ONLY for the layout (the elliptical mesh reflector standing off one side of the bus, the feed array facing it, two long five-panel wings, the round C-band antenna); not fetched by the tool, on no sheet, nothing of it in the file)