President Donald Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday afternoon that Space Command will move its headquarters from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama.
Both states, and lawmakers representing the citizens who live there, have battled for several years over which location should house the headquarters long-term, given the significant economic opportunities associated with it. Trump’s announcement on Tuesday will be the latest development in the long-running saga that dates back to his first term.
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Trump’s address was unintentionally preempted by the Department of Defense, which posted a link for a livestream titled “U.S. Space Command HQ Announcement,” which has since been changed.
In July of 2023, former President Joe Biden announced his decision to keep Space Command’s headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-minute decision by Trump at the end of his first term, which he will, in effect, reinstate.
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Space Command achieved full operational capability in December 2023. A senior Biden official said at the time that keeping the headquarters in Colorado would avoid any disruption in readiness that could occur while relocating. The official also told the Washington Examiner at the time that a new site in Alabama would not open until “the early to mid-2030s.”
Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall concluded that it was best to move the headquarters to Alabama, while Army Gen. James Dickinson, former Space Command combatant commander, disagreed.
The root question “came down to a judgment about the operational risk associated with relocating versus the reduced costs of the leading alternative of Huntsville, Alabama,” Kendall said in written testimony ahead of a congressional hearing in September 2023.
“My assessment was that the projected cost savings together with the availability of potential mitigation measures outweighed the operational risks that have been identified,” he said. “General Dickinson assessed these considerations differently.”
The debate over which state should house Space Command has also taken on political weight. Colorado is a blue state, while Alabama is red. Republican lawmakers from Alabama expressed optimism that Trump would move the headquarters to their state after claiming Biden allowed politics to influence his decision to keep it in Colorado.
Trump’s decision will ultimately anger the Colorado delegation on Capitol Hill.
One of the most influential lawmakers involved in the debate is Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) accused Biden of basing his decision on politics and promised to keep fighting to bring Space Command’s headquarters to Huntsville.
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The Air Force identified Huntsville, which is home to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal and Space and Missile Defense Command, as its preferred location in 2021.
A Pentagon inspector general review released earlier this year noted that constructing temporary operational facilities with the same capacity, connectivity, and security already in use in Colorado would take three to four years.