The Space Force’s top-ranked uniformed officer sported the service’s new mess dress uniform ahead of its formal wear testing this fall.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman donned the first wear-test asset of the mess dress at the Air Force Weapons School graduation on June 13, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson told Military Times.
The uniform, as worn by Saltzman during the ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada, can be worn for black-tie events. The mess dress is all black with silver buttons along the front of the uniform and contains a silver outline that swirls into a diamond shape around the Space Force’s emblem on the sleeve’s wrist. On the shoulder of the jacket, there are four silver stars outlined by the shape of the service’s delta symbol.
The formal and mess dress uniforms are worn for official formal events and occasions, an August 2025 Space Force personal appearance and dress guidance memorandum reads. It is the civilian equivalent to a white and black-tie tuxedo or evening gown.
Until the Space Force’s own mess dress is widely available in military clothing sale locations, the Air Force’s mess dress uniform is available for use optionally for enlisted personnel. Officers and enlisted personnel are permitted to wear the semi-formal dress uniform until the release of the Space Force’s mess dress, the memo says.
The new uniform is slated to enter formal wear testing in the fall, the spokesperson said.
“The Space Force is continuing to work with industry partners to determine production requirements and the timeline for service-wide availability,” the spokesperson said.
Recently, the guardians who volunteered to serve as wear testers completed their mess dress fittings.
A mandatory wear date has yet to be set and will not be established until the uniform is readily available to the whole force, the spokesperson said.
The mid-June ceremony was not the first time Saltzman showed off the new uniform, the spokesperson confirmed. The general first wore the mess dress in March at the Goddard Memorial Dinner, or Space Prom. In late April, he also wore it at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but an armed security threat caused the event to be cut short and rescheduled.
The Space Force, established for just over six years, has steadily been developing their uniforms with early prototypes, service member feedback and testing phases. Saltzman is the first guardian to wear a prototype of the mess dress in public, and the design has yet to be finalized.
Other uniforms were sported previously, such as the service’s new dress uniform, which was worn by guardians in a December 2025 graduation ceremony. The dress uniform is a dark blue jacket that has a diagonal line of silver buttons to the guardian’s right shoulder on top of a white colored shirt. It is to be worn with a matching-colored tie and cap and gray pants or a skirt for women.
The Space Force announced in January that the dress uniform would be available starting in mid-2026 but has not set a mandatory wear date.
Cristina Stassis is a reporter covering stories surrounding the defense industry, national security, military/veteran affairs and more. She previously worked as an editorial fellow for Defense News in 2024 where she assisted the newsroom in breaking news across Sightline Media Group.
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