Thuraya
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
Thuraya 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 12,808 triangles in a 109 kB glTF file, and is 40 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for 2 catalogued objects, each where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| 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 |
J. McDowell, 'General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects' (GCAT), 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', boeing.mediaroom.com/2003-06-06-Launch-Set-for-Boeing-Built-Thur… , 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, 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. (read 2026-10-27)
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).
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 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`
Where the map uses it. THURAYA-2 and THURAYA-3 (27825, 32404): Boeing's GEM craft with a 12.25 x 16 m mesh reflector, a 128-element L-band feed array, a 1.27 m C-band dish and two five-panel wings, 40.4 m tip to tip. They wore the geostationary stand-in `bus-ssl1300`; THURAYA-4 is an Airbus craft and is not this shape; public #1123
Licence note. The numbers are McDowell's GCAT (CC BY 4.0, cited under `dimensions`); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence. NO FREE PICTURE OF THE CRAFT WAS FOUND: the layout was read off an artist's render on Gunter's Space Page, LOOKED AT ONLY (not fetched by the tool, on no sheet, nothing of it in the file). 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.
- thuraya-2__1Gunter'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
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:
Thuraya 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=thuraya" title="Thuraya, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
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