Updated 09/02/25 at 3:30 pm EST to reflect President Donald Trump’s official announcement.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump today announced that headquarters for US Space Command (SPACECOM) will be moved to Huntsville, Ala.
“The U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City,” said Trump during a press conference.
Trump noted that the move will help push forward his Golden Dome plan for a comprehensive air and missile defense shield over US territory.
“A big factor also, in Huntsville SPACECOM will play a key role in building the Golden Dome. As you know, that’s going to be a big thing,” he said.
The announcement overturns a decision made by President Joe Biden to keep it located in Colorado Springs, Colo., which in turn followed Trump’s decision to move SPACECOM to Redstone Arsenal just before he left the Oval Office for the first time in January 2021.
Because of that back and forth, such a shift had been expected since Trump’s election in November 2024.
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The SPACECOM basing decision has been a bone of contention between the Alabama and Colorado congressional delegations for the past six years.
Investigations in 2022 by both the Defense Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that internal Department of the Air Force studies between 2019 and 2021 deemed a move to Redstone Arsenal, Ala., was the best choice based on the metrics, especially costs. However, the investigations also found that top military brass protested that the negative effects of such a move on combat readiness were not properly taken into account by the studies.
A follow-up OIG investigation, released April 15, like those before it in essence shows that Biden’s July 2023 decision to keep SPACECOM HQ in Colorado was a judgement call about priorities.
And while there is no evidence to suggest any foul play, the choice cannot escape being viewed with a political lens. Alabama is a red state where Republicans hold sway, whereas Colorado is a blue state that largely votes Democrat.
“We love Alabama. I only won it by about 47 points. I don’t think that influenced my decision, though, right?” Trump said, smiling at Alabama lawmakers arrayed around him. (Trump won Alabama by 30.6 points in the 2024 election.)
He further took Colorado’s state government to task for allowing mail-in voting, which he alleged leads to “automatically crooked elections.”
Moving SPACECOM will be a complicated process, in particular with regard to ensuring there are enough facilities equipped for top secret-level and beyond communications and operations.
According to a Dec. 12, 2024 Congressional Research Service report, approximately 1,700 personnel are directly assigned to command’s headquarters. Further, about 18,000 joint force personnel are assigned to the command’s seven subcomponents, which are based in six states.
Nonetheless, experts point out that the move won’t be starting from scratch, as the Air Force previously drew up plans for housing SPACECOM HQ at a 60-acre site at Redstone. A US Army post, Redstone currently is home to a number of service organizations, including Army Space and Missile Defense Command. It also houses the Missile Defense Agency and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R.-Ala., said during the press conference that the move would cost taxpayers less than keeping SPACECOM in Colorado.
“This move will save the taxpayers $480 million it’s not going to cost more,” he said. “[W]e have plans intact. It’ll be behind a secure wall in Huntsville, Alabama, Redstone Arsenal. We have 40,000 people there. We have the FBI there, we have missile defense there. We have NASA, Blue Origin and SpaceX. It is the perfect place for Space Command.”