Free Spacecraft Model Kits
DSN Tracking AntennaFind out how all interplanetary spacecraft are tracked. Build a mechanically accurate replica of the Deep Space Network's latest design: the 34 m Beam-Waveguide Deep Space Station. Links include a time-lapse movie of the actual Deep Space Station being built near Madrid, Spain. Model kit designs by Dave Doody.
Cosmos-1 Solar Sail SpacecraftHere's the world's first solar sail spacecraft, scheduled to be launched in June 2005 by The Planetary Society. Two versions are offered. The Advanced Version has articulated solar sails to show how the spacecraft works. The website also provides a basic course in solar sailing. Model kit designs by Dave Doody.
Lunar Prospector
A free, downloadable Lunar Prospector 1/25 Scale Model is available. Model kit design by Dave Doody. The Lunar Prospector laser-cut SCIENCE KIT is available, too, with lots of structural detail, as well as bonded metal foil, and lithographed detail. It's the easiest of all SCI KITs to assemble. Refer to SCI's Lunar Prospector Fact Sheet and Presentation Guide for use with your free model.
Stardust
A free, downloadable Stardust 1/26 Scale Model is available. Model kit designed for NASA by Dave Doody.
International Space Station
A Plans for designing models of the International Space Station are available from NASA.
Cassini The international Cassini Mission to Saturn is offering two paper models of the Cassini spacecraft which you can download from the Cassini site free of charge, print onto your own card stock, cut out, and put together. One model (pictured here) is accurate to scale and very detailed, and has sixteen pages of instructions. The other model is less accurate and less detailed, and can be assembled quickly.
It's a good thing the Cassini Program is offering these, because Cassini is really too big a spacecraft for SCI to make a laser-cut model large enough to be workable. Cassini launched on October 15, 1997, and is currently falling along its gravity-assist trajectory to Saturn.
Detailed model kit designed for the Cassini Program by Dave Doody.
Galileo
The NASA Galileo Project is offering a free model of the Galileo Spacecraft that you can download from the Galileo site free of charge, print onto your own card stock, cut out, and glue together. The extensive assembly instructions are on the Galileo web site. That's an assembled downloadable model in the image at right.
Model kit designed for the Galileo Project by Dave Doody.
PathfinderThe NASA Mars Pathfinder Project is offering a simple, free model of the Pathfinder Lander (Sagan Memorial Station) that you can download, cut out, and glue together. SCI won't be offering one, because Mattel Inc. has exclusive rights to commercial models of Pathfinder.
NEAR Spacecraft
The NASA Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) project offers free model of the spacecraft that orbited, and then landed on the asteroid Eros. Image shows an assembled model.
Pioneer 10
The NASA Pioneer Project is offering a nice, free model of the first spacecraft to leave the solar system. Here's an image of the completed model. Download, print, assemble! The instructions are all on the web site.
ACE
Here's a pair of models of the Advanced Composition Explorer designed by Jan Heirtzler. It's on the to the University of New Hampshire Space Science Group's site. Here's more about the ACE Mission.
Yohkoh Solar Observatory
The Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences of Japan launched the Yohkoh satellite to study x-rays and gamma-rays from the Sun. The project is offering a unique, free model of the spacecraft which you assemble using spacecraft blueprints and components you supply, guided by an online program.
Yet More Downloadable Models...Here are some more links to browse.
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