Early Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump publicly announced he had begun the process of returning the U.S. Space Command to Huntsville, Alabama.
“I am thrilled to report that the U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this time forward as Rocket City,” the president said during a televised address alongside Alabama Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, as well as Republican members of Alabama’s House delegation. “We love Alabama. I only won it by about 47 points, I don’t think that influenced my decision, right?”
Trump specifically praised Britt, Tuberville, and several Republican politicians from the state for their efforts to bring back Space Command. He joked that he would tell Britt, “I don’t want to talk to you anymore,” when she called him to ask about returning the headquarters to Alabama.
Known as Air Force Space Command before Trump created the Space Force in his first term, Space Command employs around 1,200 people from across the armed forces to oversee the nation’s military interests in space. The organization’s headquarters were moved to Colorado in 2023 during the Biden administration.
During the official announcement, Trump said, “We can’t have that when the state is for mail-in voting.” He also falsely claimed Colorado’s mail-in voting program results in “automatically crooked elections.”
“We initially selected Huntsville for the Space Command headquarters, yet those plans were wrongfully obstructed by the Biden administration, and as you know, they moved them to a different locale,” Trump asserted. “And today, we’re moving forward with what we want to do and the place that we want to have this, and this will be there for hopefully hundreds of years.”
The Government Accountability Office noted in a recent report that “the Air Force revalidated Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama as its preferred headquarters location” in June 2023. A thorough analysis by a private firm the Air Force hired had concluded keeping Space Command in Alabama would “cost $426 million less than staying in Colorado Springs across a 15-year period.”
The next month, July 2023, the Department of Defense announced President Joe Biden had selected Colorado Springs, Colorado, as the new location of the Space Command headquarters.
“Locating Headquarters U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs ultimately ensures peak readiness in the space domain for our nation during a critical period,” the Pentagon press secretary stated in the official announcement. “It will also enable the command to most effectively plan, execute and integrate military spacepower into multi-domain global operations in order to deter aggression and defend national interests.”
Many of Alabama’s elected officials, including Governor Kay Ivey, have been vocal critics of the Biden administration’s decision for the last two years. During a May speech hosted by the Huntsville Madison County Chamber of Commerce, Ivey said she’d urged Trump to move Space Command back before he delivered a commencement address at the University of Alabama.
“I commend Redstone and city of Huntsville leaders for their diligence in maintaining a mission-ready stance,” Ivey said in a statement on Tuesday. “I also applaud our entire Congressional delegation – Republicans and Democrats – especially Congressman Mike Rogers as chairman of the House Armed Service Committee. 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.’”
In 2023, Britt argued the Biden White House “must keep politics out of this,” saying Space Command staying in Alabama would be “best for our national security.”
NBC News had reported earlier that year that Biden’s decision to relocate Space Command was likely due to Alabama’s almost complete ban on abortion following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. One official told the outlet at the time that “this is all about abortion politics.”
Britt also issued a statement on Tuesday praising Trump’s decision to move Space Command back to Huntsville. She returned to her criticism of Biden, saying the former president had “put politics ahead of merit by yanking this military decision out of the Air Force’s hands.”
“I’m deeply grateful to President Trump and Secretary Hegseth for their commitment to keep politics out of this basing decision and allow the Air Force to proceed with doing its job,” Britt stated. “Alabama’s world-class aerospace and defense workforce, capabilities, and synergies stand ready to fulfill the mission and strengthen our national security long into the future.”
During the televised announcement, Britt said, “This delegation has worked together—both chambers, both parties—to make sure that Huntsville was the place that Space Command called home.”
Tuberville and Representatives Dale Strong, Robert Aderholt, Barry Moore, Mike Rogers, and Gary Palmer also spoke, all praising Trump for the decision. “We look forward to building a huge Space Command and having the Donald J. Trump Space Command center in Huntsville, Alabama,” Tuberville said.
Several of the speakers also mentioned the “Golden Dome” program, a missile defense system the Trump administration has proposed, which could bring additional jobs to the Huntsville area.
