Rocket City takes Command: U.S. Space Command Headquarters coming to Alabama

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (WHNT) — It’s official. Redstone Arsenal will be home to U.S. Space Command, President Donald Trump announced.

The president made the announced on September 2.

Redstone Arsenal had long been considered as an option for the permanent headquarters of the command, which has been operating at its provisional headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, while the Air Force continued to review a potential move. The command was established August 2019, the Space Command website states.

U.S. Space Command is one of the 11 unified combatant commands within the Department of Defense. The command employs joint forces from the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Space Force and “is responsible for delivering space capabilities to joint and combined forces and protecting and defending the space domain.”

The Rocket City was named a finalist for USSPACECOM in November 2020 when Trump was in his first presidential term.

In January 2021, the Secretary of the Air Force, on behalf of the Office of Secretary of Defense, named Redstone Arsenal as the preferred permanent location for the headquarters, and the Department of Defense later found that the evaluation process had been done reasonably.

Then in 2023, former President Joe Biden decided to keep Space Command in Colorado Springs, where it had been temporarily based pending a final decision. Officials said Biden was convinced by then Space Command Head General James Dickinson, who argued the move would negatively affect military readiness, a view in contrast to Air Force leadership at the time.

Biden’s decision led to calls for investigations into it from Alabama lawmakers, including Congressmen Mike Rogers and Dale Strong and Senators Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt.

A report from the DOD Office of the Inspector General, reviewing the 2023 decision, was released on April 15. It stated that, in multiple reviews, Redstone Arsenal was consistently found to be the preferred choice for a permanent headquarters for Space Command. The report estimated that construction and full technology conversion to prepare for Space Command at Redstone Arsenal could take 3 to 4 years.

The report also found that moving the headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville could save $426 million, primarily due to lower costs for construction and personnel. However, in the summer of 2023, Colorado Springs was selected as the permanent home for Space Command’s headquarters.

Over the last several months, members of Alabama’s congressional delegation have said the announcement was coming soon, with Sen. Tuberville telling the press on July 24 that he had conversations with the President and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that week regarding Space Command coming to Huntsville.

“They are ready,” Tuberville said. “We are ready to seal the deal once and for all.”

Tuberville said the state has coordinated with leadership in Madison County, putting adequate plans in place to host Space Command.

“We’ve got to do it the right way,” Tuberville said. “We don’t want something to fall through that’s not carried through the proper stages, and when it’s done, we want it to be done. We don’t need any more reviews, anything like that.”

Strong also described conversations he had recently with Trump about Redstone Arsenal’s ability to house the command.

“The President has made promises related to doing what’s right for national security,” Strong said. “Every evaluation points to Redstone Arsenal. We have no time to waste. It’s time to go vertical, and I feel that a decision is imminent.”

Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville has been home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center since 1960 and has also been home to the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command since 1957, when the Army created the first program office for ballistic missile defense.

Below is a list of the warfighting units used in Space Command, per its website:

The move is expected to bring a significant amount of jobs to the Tennessee Valley.

For more information on the United States Space Command, click here.