Astra 2D is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES and located at 28.2° east in the Clarke Belt till June 2015. It is a Hughes HS-376 craft and was launched from the Guiana Space Centre in December 2000 to join Astra 2A and Astra 2B at 28.2°E, where it remained for its active life.

AMC-8, also known as Americom-8 and Aurora III, previously GE-8, is a C-band satellite located at 139° West, covering the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. The satellite provides critical telecommunications services to AT&T Alascom which occupies most of the satellite's capacity. AMC-8 was used by thousands of terrestrial radio stations for network feeds using ground equipment.

The LDREX (Large-scale Deployable Reflector Experiment Model) is a small partial model antenna built to validate the design of the ETS-8's Large Deployable Antenna, and will conduct experiments to solve various technical problems that the ETS-8 is facing.