President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that US Space Command will be relocated from Colorado to Alabama, returning to the Pentagon's plans for the command's headquarters from the final days of Trump's first term in the White House.
The headquarters will move to the Army's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office, flanked by Republican members of the Alabama congressional delegation.
The move will "help America defend and dominate the high frontier," Trump said. It also marks another twist on a contentious issue that has pitted Colorado and Alabama against one another in a fight for the right to be home to the permanent headquarters of Space Command (SPACECOM), a unified combatant command responsible for carrying out military operations in space.
Space Command is separate from the Space Force and is made up of personnel from all branches of the armed services. The Space Force, on the other hand, is charged with supplying personnel and technology for use by multiple combatant commands. The newest armed service, established in 2019 during President Trump's first term, is part of the Department of the Air Force, which also had the authority for recommending where to base Space Command's permanent headquarters.
"US Space Command stands ready to carry out the direction of the president following today's announcement of Huntsville, Alabama, as the command's permanent headquarters location," SPACECOM wrote on its official X account.
Military officials in the first Trump administration considered potential sites in Colorado, Florida, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Texas before the Air Force recommended basing Space Command in Huntsville, Alabama, on January 13, 2021, a week before Trump left office.