Soaring High: Pentagon's Space Force Gets New Uniform

The Guardian Service Dress prototype for the US Space Force uniform (AFP/Handout)
The Guardian Service Dress prototype for the US Space Force uniform (AFP/Handout)
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Soaring High: Pentagon's Space Force Gets New Uniform

The Guardian Service Dress prototype for the US Space Force uniform (AFP/Handout)
The Guardian Service Dress prototype for the US Space Force uniform (AFP/Handout)

The US Space Force unveiled its new dress uniform design Tuesday, aiming to make a future-forward mark for the Pentagon's newest uniformed service.

The prototype for the new uniform for the Space Force's Guardians, as they have been officially designated, is a short navy blue jacket with a large flap over the right breast, secured by a diagonal line of six silver buttons.

It has a standing collar, and the service badge, with a delta-shaped rocket pushing into a star, is worn below the left breast.

The jacket is matched with grey trousers or skirts.

"Modern, distinctive, professional" the Space Force called it in a tweet.

"Every winning team needs a uniform! We started with the female design and then created the male prototype," wrote Chief of Space Operations General Jay Raymond.

Launched officially in December 2019, the Space Force was organized to address challenges of fighting war in the exosphere, seen as a distinct theater from the air force.

Similar designs with diagonal buttons holding down breast flaps have been seen for centuries in European and American uniforms, and are donned with large amounts of braid by marching band drum majors today.

But the designers for the Space Force seemed aware of the sleeker uniforms seen in "Star Trek", "Battlestar Galactica" -- where uniforms also had the diagonal buttons -- and "Star Wars".

Indeed, the force's service badge and logo are difficult to distinguish from that of the Starfleet Command from Star Trek.



Jellyfish Force French Nuclear Plant Shutdown

This photograph shows jellyfish lying on the shore near the Gravelines nuclear power plant in Gravelines, northern France on August 12, 2025. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP)
This photograph shows jellyfish lying on the shore near the Gravelines nuclear power plant in Gravelines, northern France on August 12, 2025. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP)
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Jellyfish Force French Nuclear Plant Shutdown

This photograph shows jellyfish lying on the shore near the Gravelines nuclear power plant in Gravelines, northern France on August 12, 2025. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP)
This photograph shows jellyfish lying on the shore near the Gravelines nuclear power plant in Gravelines, northern France on August 12, 2025. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP)

A nuclear plant in northern France was temporarily shut down on Monday after a swarm of jellyfish clogged pumps used to cool the reactors, energy group EDF said.

The automatic shutdowns of four units "had no impact on the safety of the facilities, the safety of personnel, or the environment", EDF said on its website.

"These shutdowns are the result of the massive and unpredictable presence of jellyfish in the filter drums of the pumping stations," the Gravelines plant operator said.

The site was fully shut after the incident, with its two other units already offline for maintenance.

Teams were carrying out inspections to restart the production units "in complete safety", EDF said, adding the units were expected to restart on Thursday, AFP reported.

"There is no risk of a power shortage," the company added, saying other energy sources, including solar power, were operational.

Gravelines is Western Europe's largest nuclear power plant with six reactors, each with the capacity to produce 900 megawatts.

The site is due to open two next-generation reactors, each with a capacity of 1,600 megawatts, by 2040.

This is not the first time jellyfish have shut down a nuclear facility, though EDF said such incidents were "quite rare", adding the last impact on its operations was in the 1990s.

There have been cases of plants in other countries shutting down due to jellyfish invasions, notably a three-day closure in Sweden in 2013 and a 1999 incident in Japan that caused a major drop in output.

Experts say overfishing, plastic pollution and climate change have created conditions allowing jellyfish to thrive and reproduce.