XMM-Newton
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
XMM-Newton is one of the 203 3D models Space Radar made itself: a space telescope, 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 7,194 triangles in a 44 kB glTF file, and is 16 m across at full scale.
On Space Radar’s live map it is drawn for the object with NORAD catalogue number 25989, where its published orbit puts it now. Open it on the map.
Dimensions and their sources
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Length | 10 m |
| Span | 16 m |
| Wing panel long | 1.94 m |
| Wing panel wide | 1.81 m |
| Tube | 6.8 m |
| Mirror outermost | 0.7 m |
| Mirror innermost | 0.306 m |
eoPortal, eoportal.org/satellite-missions/xmm-newton, OPENED 2026-10-13: 'a service module bearing the three X-ray mirror modules, propulsion and electrical systems, a long telescope tube and the focal plane assembly carrying the science instruments. The total length of XMM-Newton is 10 m, and its solar arrays give the satellite a 16 m span.'; 'The solar array has two wings, each with three rigid 1.94 m x 1.81 m panels, giving a total area of 21 m 2'; 'The two wings are body-fixed and have a Sun incidence angle variation around normal of up to 28º.'; 'Due to its length of 6.80 m, the Telescope Tube is physically composed of two halves: the upper and lower tubes.'; 'Mirror diameter and thickness Outermost:700 mm / 1.07 mm, Innermost: 306 mm / 0.47 mm'; 'Reflective surface Gold (250 nm layer)'; 'The SVM,carrying the spacecraft subsystems, the two solar-array wings, the TSS (Telescope Sun Shield) and the two S-band antennae.'; 'The SVM ... is also fully blanketed with the exception of panel radiators. On the Sun-side they are covered by mirror solar reflectors, while those on the anti-sun side of the satellite are painted white.'; 'The EPIC and RGS instruments are fitted with radiators, to passively cool the CCDs'; 'Together with the black lining of its internal surface'. DERIVED: 10 m as 1.5 m of service module and doors, 6.8 m of tube, 1.7 m of focal plane; the wings' roots 2.18 m from the axis, so that three 1.94 m panels a side reach 16 m. READ OFF NASA'S RENDER: the eight-sided service module, the round aperture with three mirrors and the smaller optical monitor, the three open doors, the sun shield standing on one side, the black blankets. OURS: the service module's 3.2 m and the tube's 2.1 m across (no page opened gives either), every shape at the focal-plane end (the render does not show it), the doors' places. (read 2026-10-13)
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 a NASA render of XMM-Newton (NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, public domain).
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'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; ESA's own model at scifleet.esa.int was NOT used: ESA's terms forbid derivative works)
Where the map uses it. NORAD 25989 (XMM-NEWTON), in the whole active catalogue: ESA's X-ray observatory, in a 48-hour orbit that takes it 114 000 km out. It had no route and wore the shape of its class; public #966
Licence note. Public domain (NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio's render, which the layout of the mirror end was read off; nothing of the picture is in the file); the shape is this project's, under this repository's licence. NEITHER ESA'S MODEL NOR ANY ESA PICTURE WAS USED. 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.
- XMM-Newton spacecraft animations (SVS20399 - XMM Beauty Still)NASA's Scientific Visualization StudioPublic domain (NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20399; the Commons API's LicenseShortName, read 2026-10-13)
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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:
XMM-Newton 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=xmm-newton" title="XMM-Newton, 3D model by Space Radar" width="600" height="450" loading="lazy" style="border:0;max-width:100%"></iframe>Related models
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