[2] Astra 3A was launched to provide follow-on capacity to replace the DFS Kopernikus-3 satellite and deliver additional capacity for the Benelux countries and central Europe, to create SES-Astra's third major European satellite hotspot after Astra 19.2°E and Astra 28.2°E with access to channels at both positions using a single dish fitted with a monoblock Duo LNB.

In that role, television signals could be received with a 50 cm dish across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, most of Denmark, and in parts of France, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia.

In addition to contribution feeds and individual television channels, Astra 3A carried pay television networks including Kabel Deutschland (Germany), Canal Digitaal (Netherlands), TV Vlaanderen (Belgium), CS Link (Slovakia and Czech Republic) and Skylink (Slovakia and Czech Republic).

In November 2013, Astra 3A was moved to 176.9° West where it remained, in inclined orbit, to provide backup to SES' NSS-9 satellite.

[9] In November 2016 it started moving east at approx 0.5°/day until positioned at 47° West in mid-February 2017 alongside SES' NSS-806 satellite (replaced by SES-14 in January 2018).