Merah Putih

Block 5 was designed to fly ten times with minimal maintenance between missions — a standard no previous Falcon variant had approached. Its maiden flight carried Bangladesh's Bangabandhu-1 satellite in May 2018; on 7 August 2018, the same booster, B1046, flew again carrying Indonesia's Merah Putih communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. The turnaround had taken less than three months.

The reflight was the demonstration the design was built toward: that a single booster could return, be inspected rather than rebuilt, and fly again on a commercial mission. Merah Putih, a 5,800 kg communications satellite for Indonesia's Telkomsat, was a straightforward payload — chosen, in effect, to let the booster be the story. B1046 landed on the drone ship after the mission, ready for a third flight.