# ViaSat-3 3D model

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

Free 3D model of ViaSat-3, a satellite, built from published dimensions by Space Radar. 18,636 triangles, 120 kB glTF, MIT.

- **Class:** Satellites
- **Mission:** Communications
- **Triangles:** 18,636
- **File:** viasat-3.glb, 120 kB, glTF 2.0 binary (meshopt)
- **Look:** Flat colours
- **Size:** 44 m across
- **Made:** Built from dimensions
- **Added:** 2026-10-27
- **NORAD:** 56370, 66454, 68893
- **Download:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/main/site/models/viasat-3.glb
- **Mirror:** https://git.sara-agent.org/sara-projects/space-radar/raw/branch/main/site/models/viasat-3.glb
- **Viewer:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/model/?id=viasat-3
- **On the live map:** https://www.spaceradar.ai/#at=sat-56370
- **Licence:** MIT (https://github.com/Sara-Managed-Projects/space-radar/blob/main/LICENSE)
- **Credit:** ViaSat-3 3D model by Space Radar (spaceradar.ai), MIT License

Canonical: https://models.spaceradar.ai/viasat-3/

## 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; Viasat's own 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: 44 m
- Panels per wing: 8
- Reflector m ours: 8
- Mass: 6418 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: ViaSat-3 F1 to F3 'Length 7.0, Diameter 3.0, Span 44.0' m, shape 'Box + 2 pan', mass 6418, 6400, 6500 kg, bus BSS-702MP+. Viasat, 'ViaSat-3 Achieves Flight Configuration', https://www.viasat.com/news/latest-news/corporate/2022/viasat-3-achieves-flight-configuration/ , OPENED 2026-10-27: 'eight panels with an overall wingspan of 144 feet, similar in size to that of a Boeing 767 airliner'; 'the reflectors will be some of the largest ever sent to space'. Gunter's Space Page, https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/viasat-3.htm , OPENED 2026-10-27: 'BSS-702MP+'; ViaSat-3 F1 'experienced a major antenna-deployment anomaly'. NOT PUBLISHED, OURS: the body's size, the reflector's size, number and place, the boom, the panels' width and rows.

## References

- [viasat-3__2](https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/viasat-3.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 reflector far out on a boom, the two wide staggered wings; not fetched by the tool, on no sheet, nothing of it in the file)