Japan's NASDA space agency sponsored the LDREX experimental antenna. Ariane V138's EPS upper stage carried an ASAP5 small payload attachment ring with a special camera system. LDREX was a 6-m diameter antenna which was to have deployed 40 minutes after launch, to test the deployment mechanism for the larger antenna to be used on the ETS-8 satellite. After the test the antenna was to have been jettisoned. However the experiment failed and no deployment or jettison took place.