Trump announces Space Command move to Alabama. Here’s why it matters

By Jackie Wattles, Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will move the military’s US Space Command to Huntsville, Alabama — undoing a decision by the Biden administration to keep operations in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The US Space Command, or SPACECOM, is a joint command separate from the US Space Force military branch, which is tasked with leading national security operations in space. That includes overseeing satellites and networks that provide missile warnings, communications and in-space surveillance, while also tracking orbital debris and potential threats to US and allied spacecraft.

“We initially selected Huntsville for the SPACECOM headquarters. Yet those plans were wrongfully obstructed by the Biden administration,” Trump said.

In announcing the move Trump also criticized the state of Colorado — which has Democrats in its statewide elected offices — saying, “The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, is they do mail-in voting. ” (Several red states also allow some form of mail-in voting, including Utah, which like Colorado, has automatic mail-in voting.)

Meanwhile, Colorado officials blasted Trump’s decision. The state’s governor, Jared Polis, called the move a “waste (of) taxpayer dollars” and an “inconvenience (to) military families” that must relocate.

A permanent location for SPACECOM’s headquarters has been the subject of debate — and an impetus for accusations of political manipulation by both political parties since Trump reestablished the center in its modern iteration in 2018.

At the time, SPACECOM was set up as a temporary location in Colorado Springs while other cities were being evaluated as possible long-term homes. In 2021, the US Air Force recommended the command be moved to Huntsville, Alabama, noting it would be the most cost-effective option.

The following year, however, a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the US Air Force’s decision-making process had “significant shortfalls in its transparency and credibility.”

$1 billion economic impact

In 2023, then-President Joe Biden sought to make SPACECOM’s Colorado Springs location permanent, heeding a recommendation from Gen. James Dickinson, the former head of Space Command, who cautioned that relocating to Alabama could jeopardize military readiness because it would take time to make the headquarters fully operational.

Colorado officials cheered Biden’s decision. The local chamber of commerce noted that the “decision preserves the nearly 1,400 Colorado jobs and annual economic impact of $1 billion reliant on Space Command’s HQ in Colorado Springs.”

But the decision was met with disagreement from other Air Force officials — and anger from Alabama officials who had long lobbied for a move to Huntsville.

“This is absolutely not over,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said in a 2023 statement reacting to Biden’s decision. “I will continue to fight this as long as it takes to bring Space Command where it would be best served — Huntsville, Alabama.”

Tuberville and fellow Alabama Sen. Katie Britt stood beside Trump during Tuesday’s announcement. Trump referenced their apparent lobbying effort during his speech, saying, “You’re not going to call me anymore and talk about this subject, right?”

Last year, House Armed Services committee leadership asked the Department of Defense’s Inspector General to evaluate Biden’s decision, and a report was released in April.

The document concluded that it would take three to four years to set up a temporary SPACECOM headquarters in Alabama that is similar to what was already available in Colorado. But Air Force officials continued to express their preference for the relocation.

The report also said investigators were unable to determine why the Biden administration did not accept the US Air Force’s initial recommendation to move SPACECOM to Huntsville.

In making that recommendation, the Air Force said Huntsville ranked highest in its evaluation, which looked at mission synergy, infrastructure, cost, community support and quality of life. It also said it had “acknowledged risks to (military) readiness inherent to moving the HQ from its provisional location…but balanced that risk, which they proposed could be mitigated, against the $426 million cost advantage of” moving to Alabama.

The GAO reported in May that US Space Command officials had told investigators they “faced ongoing personnel, facilities, and communications challenges” in Colorado.

Space Command is the US military’s 11th combatant command, joining the ranks of US Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, and US Special Operations Command, which oversees Special Operations Forces.

Trump’s 2018 decision to reestablish SPACECOM came as national security experts renewed their emphasis on the importance of space operations. Hawks in Congress frequently point to competition with China and a need to establish US supremacy in space technology as urgent considerations.

China’s “space program has been a personal focus for President Xi and a symbol of their great power status. We cannot afford to lose any time or effectiveness against this threat,” reads a 2023 memorandum from the SPACECOM commander.

Rocket City vs. The Springs

Space Command’s history in Colorado Springs dates back four decades. From 1985 to 2002, its headquarters were located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, according to the Defense Department’s report from the Office of the Inspector general. (After 2002 and until Trump’s 2018 decision to reestablish the command, SPACECOM was merged with the US Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha, Nebraska.)

Both Colorado Springs and Huntsville have long histories as centers for aerospace and defense activity. Companies including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and L3Harris have facilities in both locations.

In his statement, Gov. Polis said that Colorado Springs is “a proud military community” that is home to “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,” Polis said of Trump’s announcement.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet also said in a statement that he and his colleagues are “united in fighting to reverse this decision.”

“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,” Bennet said. “Those people will not simply move with the Command at the military’s whim.”

When asked whether he was concerned about military families’ willingness to relocate to Alabama, Trump suggested SPACECOM would replace personnel who would not move: “I’m not worried. Then we’ll get somebody else.”

Nicknamed “Rocket City,” Huntsville is home to sprawling aerospace manufacturing plants and Redstone Arsenal, a World War II-era Army facility and the site of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

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