While Meteosat 8 meteorological instruments are working, solid state power amplifier SSPA-C failed in October 2002.

Subsequent investigation assessed the Meteosat-8 spinning spacecraft's orbit change due to the mass release of thermal covering whose attachment failed.

[3] On 29 June 2016, EUMETSAT approved the proposal of relocating Meteosat-8 to 41.5°E, for the continuation of the Indian Ocean Data Coverage (IODC), replacing Meteosat-7.

[5] On 1 February 2017, Meteosat-8 replaced Meteosat-7 as the official EUMETSAT geostationary satellite for the Indian Ocean.

Although not designed to comply with the more recent ISO-24113 guidelines for space debris mitigation, EUMETSAT chose to do so in the case of Meteosat-8 as it had done so the year before for the polar-orbiting Metop-A.