President Donald Trump is relocating the Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama, settling a battle between the two states that has lasted for years. Although the president argued that politics did not play a part in his decision, Trump did mention the blue state’s mail-in voting system during his announcement.
Trump’s decision, announced on Tuesday, aligns with his initial plan to locate the military branch’s headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, when he reestablished the Space Command during his first term. The decision was later reversed by former President Joe Biden out of concern for the state’s anti-abortion law. The back-and-forth between the two states has cost the Space Command time and money, further delaying its operations in Earth orbit.
Colorado lawmakers argue that the move will delay national security readiness in space and uproot military families while wasting millions in taxpayer dollars since the military branch has already reached its full operational capacity in its current location.
“This is the wrong decision, diminishing military readiness and national security and eroding the trust Americans have in our country and its leaders to do the right thing,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said in a statement. “Uprooting Space Command will weaken national security and readiness, waste taxpayer dollars, and inconvenience military families.”
Defending America in space
The Space Command was established in 1985, then later dissolved by former President George W. Bush, and its functions were absorbed by the U.S. Strategic Command in 2002. Trump then brought it back in 2019 to “defend America’s vital interests in space—the next warfighting domain,” the president said at the time.
Not to be confused with the U.S. Space Force, the Space Command is a combatant command of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct “operations in, from, and to space to deter conflict, and if necessary, defeat aggression, deliver space combat power for the joint/combined force, and defend U.S. vital interests with allies and partners,” according to the DOD.
Since it was reestablished, the Space Command has been housed at the Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs as its interim headquarters, with plans to permanently establish it in Alabama. In December 2022, the Biden administration directed the U.S. Air Force to conduct a review of a decision made by Trump to relocate the Space Command headquarters from Colorado to Alabama. Biden was reportedly looking to reverse that decision out of concern over Alabama’s strict anti-abortion laws.
The decision sparked a months-long feud over the Space Command’s rightful place, with Alabama lawmakers resorting to restricting the Air Force’s budget to put pressure on the administration. Finally, in August 2023, President Biden succeeded in reversing Trump’s decision.
Since Trump’s reelection, however, Colorado lawmakers have been concerned that the president will want to move the Space Command headquarters even though it reached its full operational capacity in December.
No better place than Alabama
Alabama lawmakers welcomed Tuesday’s decision, hailing the city of Huntsville as a hub for space and defense. Huntsville, nicknamed Rocket City, is home to major defense contractors and aerospace companies such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.
“As I have said all along, there is no better place to locate Space Command Headquarters than in Huntsville, Alabama,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement. “As our history shows, Alabama always stands ready to support the defense of our great nation, and Huntsville continues proving the Rocket City is truly ‘Space Central.’”
Governors in Colorado also argue that the state is home to a booming private space industry, boasting the highest concentration of private aerospace employment in the U.S., with more than 500 space-related companies, according to the Space Workforce Coalition.
The decision comes off as largely political, rewarding a red state for voting in favor of the president. “We love Alabama. I only won it by about 47 points. I don’t think that influenced my decision, though,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday, according to Reuters. “The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, they do mail-in voting. They went to all mail-in voting, so they have automatically crooked elections.”
In a joint statement, members of Colorado’s congressional delegation said they will take action to stop the move from happening in order to protect the residents and economy of the state, according to The Denver Gazette.
“Space Command’s long-term presence in Colorado Springs has also created a large number of civilian businesses and workers on which the Command now relies,” the statement read. “Those people will not simply move with the Command at the military’s whim. Many of them will leave the industry altogether, creating a disruption in the workforce that will take our national defense systems decades to recreate.”
