Sentinel 6 (ESA mission for the EU Copernicus Programme) 1:25 model

The Sentinel-6 spacecraft are developed by Airbus Defence and Space for the European Space Agency (ESA) under the European Commision Copernicus Programme and EUMETSAT, with participation from the NASA and NOAA.
This component of the Earth observation Copernicus Programme provides global sea surface height observations for climate monitoring and ocean and seasonal forecasts. It continues a time series of mean sea level rise measurements dating back to 1992 (with the Jason series developed by the French CNES).

The first model, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, was launched in November 2020 on board of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg USA.  The second model was just launched on the 17th of November 2025

This 1:25 model was prepared based on pictures of the spacecraft found on the internet, and in particular on the ESA website, and tries to convey as much detail as possible at this scale.

Print instructions

Most pieces are designed for FDM printers and around a layer height of 0.2mm and a nozzle diameter of 0.4mm. No support is needed.

For each part the color(s) are indicated as a prefix in the name and the number of copies as a suffix (e.g. for "WHITE-BLACK_SunSensor_x6.stl”, 6 copies of the piece must be printed, with white then black filament). 

The largest and tallest piece is the main body part which requires a build plate of at least 160x105mm with a height of 82mm which should fit most printers. The two solar array wings are also quite large (150x100mm), each of them being assembled from 1 recto part (tricolor) and 1 verso part (quadricolor) glued together. 

The 6 sun sensors are very small pieces probably much easier (and nicer) to print with a 0.2mm nozzle (although for the version pictured I did use a 0.4mm nozzle). Do not hesitate to use brims if necessary to ensure adhesion to the build plate for the few tall pieces with low printing area (the SHA and XBGA antennas, the STR baffles, the AMR cold sky reflector and radiators, etc).

The main body part is fairly large and can be challenging to print:

• there is a relatively low contact area to the print bed (you can add support to the solar-array supporting sides if necessary)
• orient the piece so that the sides are similarly exposed to the cooling fan
• I heavily suggest to “force solid infill” every 1 layer for the top floor layers (if not, due to the silver radiator pieces slots, the top layers will be very difficult to print), i did that using a slab modifier between 62.8 and 64mm.

Do not hesitate to seam-paint on the pieces where they are glued to each other. The different pieces will be in their intended print orientation when you import them in your slicer, see what it looks like on the single-color plates illustrations below: 

⬆ All the pieces above benefit a lot from a brim to ensure they print correctly

Multicolor prints

9 different pieces (the solar array “recto” and “verso” part, the AMR base and mount, the AMR HRMR, the launcher interface mount and the XBGA antenna, the sun sensors and the DORIS antenna) need a color change during printing, which is easy by adding a filament change directly in your slicer. The height at which the color change should be applied is written as a file note, and the following screenshots can help visualize what it should look like:

Note that for the DORIS antenna I printed only the silver/white combo and then painted some gold on the spirals. All-color printing could be possible (but probably wasteful in filament):

Assembly instructions

I recommend using common white glue (and patience 😉) to assemble the pieces instead of contact glue that often leaves white residues and can be messy.

The tolerances used are 0.2mm vertically and at least 0.07mm in-plane to provide a snug fit (keep that in mind if you want to re-scale the model!). If the tolerances are not accessible to your printer (or your printer is better tuned than mine 😉) you may have to use sandpaper or a hobby knife to adjust them until they fit and/or use (more) glue.

There are quite a few pieces but assembly is overall relatively easy (although I do recommend trying some of my other more simple models before attempting this one). Please refer to the little montages below presenting how the different pieces are positioned with respect to each other:

Non-printed part

1 part is not meant to be 3D printed but still necessary to complete the model. It is not provided as a part file, but can be seen on the labelled back view figure of the previous section: CARBON-ROD_DeskSupportRod_l100mm_d3mm_x1 which calls for a 3mm diameter 100mm rod. Recommended is carbon/glass fiber (quite easy to source). It needs to be rigid as the completed model is quite heavy.

[NOT SPONSORED] For other EU makers I have had great luck with https://micro-modele.fr/ to source such small diameter materials.

I paint the lettering on the desk support using a silver paint marker to make it stand out.