After years of debate and a temporary base in Colorado, the U.S. Space Command headquarters is rocketing to a new home. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Huntsville, Alabama, will serve as its permanent location.
“We had a lot of competition for this and Alabama is getting it. Huntsville in particular,” Trump said.
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Trump announces Huntsville as new home
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., dubbed it the Donald J. Trump U.S. Space Command Center, which is expected to save taxpayers $480 million due to lower construction costs, with plans already underway to complete the move.
“As I have said all along, there is no better place to locate Space Command headquarters than in Huntsville, Alabama. Today, the facts prevailed, and it is official: Space Command headquarters is coming to Sweet Home Alabama,” Gov. Kay Ivey said following the announcement.
U.S. Space Command oversees military operations in space, from monitoring satellites to defending missile warning systems and protecting global communications networks. Its mission has taken on greater weight as rivals like China and Russia expand their own space capabilities, making the command’s location and stability a matter of national security.
“We are way ahead in space, but this will ensure we stay leaps and bounds ahead because that is the most important domain,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “Whoever controls the skies will control the future of warfare.”
The news originally came from both The Associated Press and Reuters, saying the Biden-era decision was expected to be reversed. The headquarters has bounced back and forth for years. Space Command was reactivated in 2019 and temporarily set up in Colorado Springs. In 2021, the Air Force identified Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal as its preferred site. In 2023, the command was slated to stay in its temporary Colorado Springs headquarters.
The Biden administration said keeping it there would prevent disruptions to military readiness. However, some said Biden made the decision based on politics and not merit.
“To the detriment of U.S. national security, President Biden chose to undermine the integrity of the process and put politics ahead of merit by yanking this military decision out of the Air Force’s hands,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said to local media.
Now, sources indicate that the command will shift to Huntsville, ending a four-year debate over its permanent home.
“Seven years in the making, as you know. This has been going on for a long period of time,” Trump said.
Colorado responds to news
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis expressed his disappointment in Trump’s decision.
He said it’s wrong for national security and military readiness while also disrupting the trust of Americans. “Uprooting Space Command will weaken national security and readiness, waste taxpayer dollars, and inconvenience military families. Colorado Springs is home to a proud military community and a thriving aerospace ecosystem, and significant national security missions and units, all of which are critical to U.S. Space Command. Coloradans and Americans should all be provided full transparency and the full details of this poor decision,” he said in a statement.
Why wasn’t Colorado chosen?
Trump has expressed frustration with Colorado, citing the state’s mail-in voting system and past election controversies as a factor in his decision to relocate U.S. Space Command.
“They went to all mail-in voting, so they have automatically crooked elections,” Trump claimed. “When a state is for mail-in voting, that means they want dishonest elections because that’s what that means. So that played a big factor also.”
Colorado has faced a series of election-related issues in recent years, including the accidental release of voting machine passwords in 2024 and legal battles over Trump’s eligibility to appear on the 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment. While state officials maintained there was no evidence of compromised ballots, the disputes fueled national debates about election security. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually overturned Colorado’s ruling barring Trump from the ballot.
The military also said it chose Huntsville over Colorado Springs due to Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal being a better location for Space Command. Officials said the arsenal has better infrastructure, more existing facilities and would be cheaper to construct.
Rocket City’s legacy in spaceflight
Huntsville may not be a household name nationwide, but the city is a major technology hub. For drivers heading down I-565, it’s hard to miss the 363-foot Saturn V rocket rising over Huntsville, the same launch vehicle that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon. It hosts the nation’s second-largest research park and is home to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, which includes Space Camp.
Nicknamed the Rocket City, Huntsville has been at the heart of America’s military and space efforts for decades. From Redstone Arsenal to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, the city helped launch the nation’s first rockets, and a legacy that still shapes its identity today.
“Huntsville, Alabama is unequivocally the best place for Space Command. The Rocket City and the entire State of Alabama are thrilled to continue playing a central role in advancing the United States’ dominance in the frontier of space,” Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said to media outlets in Huntsville.
Huntsville’s role in spaceflight is woven into U.S. history. Rockets built there launched the first American satellite and carried astronauts to the moon. The city also produced propulsion systems for the space shuttle, developed modules for the International Space Station, and today is helping design the Space Launch System.
How does the HQ impact economies?
The aerospace and defense sector drives more than 40% of Colorado Springs’ economy. More than 200 companies in space, aerospace, cybersecurity and defense employ 111,000 people and generate $10.2 billion in economic impact in 2022.
In Alabama, Trump said this move will result in more than 30,000 jobs within the state and billions of dollars of investment.
