Orbview 4 was a high resolution commercial Earth imaging satellite imagery. OrbView 4's imaging instrument was to provide one-meter panchromatic imagery and four-meter multispectral imagery with a swath width of 8 km as well as 200 channel hyperspectral imagery with a swath width of 5 km. The satellite was to revisit each location on Earth in less than three days with an ability to turn from side-to-side up to 45 degrees from a polar orbital path.

The QuikTOMS (Quick Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) mission is to continue daily mapping of the global distribution of the Earth's total column of the atmospheric ozone with Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Flight Model 5 (TOMS-5). TOMS-5 was scheduled to be launched in the year 2000 aboard the Russian satellite, Meteor-3M(2), but the Meteor-3M(2)/TOMS-5 mission was terminated in April 1999.

SBD (Special Bus Design) was a space demonstration of an improved MicroStar bus. It was to remain on the last stage of the launch vehicle.

Celestis is the first company to offer space burials. The Celestis payloads are small containers (CPAC, Celestis Payload Attached Container)

The containers contain small aluminum capsule about the size of a lipstick, containing symbolic 7 g of cremated remains. Several flights have been made. Among the first persons, whos ashes were send into space were the late "Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry, 60ies icon Timothy Leary and space colony advocate Gerald O'Neill.