Celeste Springer
The White House held a press conference on Tuesday, which you can watch below:
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Space Command, headquartered in Colorado Springs, will be moving to Alabama.
There has been ongoing speculation about the move for months. Alabama lawmakers have said in several interviews with local media outlets that they anticipated the move.
Space Command was expected to relocate to Huntsville, Alabama, during President Trump’s first administration, but a 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the US Air Force’s decision-making process had “significant shortfalls in its transparency and credibility.” A year later, President Joe Biden decided to keep it in Colorado.
Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade has warned that moving Space Command would come with an enormous cost, not only monetarily, but with time and safety.
In April, Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet released a joint statement on the matter. It read, in part, “It’s already been investigated, proven, and decided: Colorado Springs is the best place for U.S. Space Command because it’s already at work here. Space Command is at full operational capability and has been for nearly a year.”
However, Alabama lawmakers maintain that Huntsville is the best home for its operations.
“Huntsville finished first in both the Air Force’s Evaluation Phase and Selection Phase, leaving no doubt the Air Force’s decision to choose Redstone as the preferred basing location was correct purely on the merits,” said U.S. Senator Katie Britt in a release back in January.
Response from local, state officials
In response to President Trump’s announcement, Mayor Yemi Mobolade released this statement.
Today’s announcement about relocating U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs is deeply disappointing, not only for our city, but for our nation’s security and taxpayers.
This move threatens operational continuity at a time when space-related threats are only increasing. U.S. Space Command reached full operational capability in 2023 because of the unmatched talent here in Colorado Springs, much of which will not relocate. Losing that expertise in relocation risks mission success and wastes billions in taxpayer dollars.
While we are disappointed, we are not surprised. We have long understood this would be a priority of the Trump administration. From day one, we have worked with our congressional delegation and community partners to keep U.S. Space Command here because it is in the best interest of our national defense and America’s global standing.
Looking forward, we remain hopeful. The space enterprise is growing rapidly, and Colorado Springs, already a global leader in space, will continue to see new opportunities for expansion and growth of our military capacity. Our existing space assets position us well for the next chapter in America’s space story.
– Yemi Mobolade, Colorado Springs Mayor
Colorado Governor Jared Polis also released a statement expressing his disappointment.
“This is a deeply disappointing decision for our state and nation. This is the wrong decision, diminishing military readiness and national security and eroding the trust Americans have in our country and its leaders to do the right thing. Uprooting Space Command will weaken national security and readiness, waste taxpayer dollars, and inconvenience military families. Colorado Springs is home to a proud military community and a thriving aerospace ecosystem, and significant national security missions and units, all of which are critical to U.S. Space Command. Coloradans and Americans should all be provided full transparency and the full details of this poor decision. We hope other vital military units and missions are retained and expanded in Colorado Springs. Colorado remains an ideal location for future missions, including Golden Dome,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis.
The Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera also chimed in.
“Space is critical to every component of American life, from our economy to our national security. This ill-advised decision by the White House to move Space Command from its rightful home in Colorado Springs will significantly harm our military readiness and national security and uproot military families. Our unparalleled Aerospace & Defense ecosystem has been vital to Space Command achieving Full Operational Capability and executing the mission. This decision is deeply disappointing,” said Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera.
Federal lawmakers representing Colorado from both sides of the aisle condemned the move. U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, and U.S. Representatives Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jeff Hurd, Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank, Jason Crow, Brittany Pettersen, and Gabe Evans released the following statement on the announcement by the Trump administration to spend billions of dollars to move the fully operational U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama:
“Today’s decision to move U.S Space Command’s headquarters out of Colorado and to Alabama will directly harm our state and the nation. We are united in fighting to reverse this decision. Bottom line—moving Space Command headquarters weakens our national security at the worst possible time.
“Moving Space Command sets our space defense apparatus back years, wastes billions of taxpayer dollars, and hands the advantage to the converging threats of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The Department of Defense Inspector General’s office has reported multiple times that moving the Command will impede our military’s operational capability for years.
“Space Command’s long-term presence in Colorado Springs has also created a large number of civilian businesses and workers on which the Command now relies. Those people will not simply move with the Command at the military’s whim. Many of them will leave the industry altogether, creating a disruption in the workforce that will take our national defense systems decades to recreate.
“Being prepared for any threats should be the nation’s top priority; a crucial part of that is keeping in place what is already fully operational. Moving Space Command would not result in any additional operational capabilities than what we have up and running in Colorado Springs now. Colorado Springs is the appropriate home for U.S. Space Command, and we will take the necessary action to keep it there.”
In a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Mobolade shared that he had been advocating for Space Command to stay in Colorado Springs down to the wire of this decision.
“Every time I’m in the D.C. area, you better believe that one of my top priorities of what we’re trying to, I’m trying to advocate for has to do with Space Command,” expressed Mayor Mobolade.
The mayor also explained how this move could make way for more space operations in Colorado Springs, including the President’s Golden Dome.
“The President hasn’t made any promises to me or any commitments. But when you’re reading, when you reading between the lines, you can see, okay, Colorado Springs is going to be a major player in, in these decisions moving forward,” said Mayor Mobolade.
Mayor Mobolade also said in his talks with Representative Jeff Crank (R), he’s received hopeful news from Washington, D.C.
“Jeff Crank told me I can go on record and say General Saltzman, who is the head of U.S space, Space Force operations, has said…Colorado Springs will see some growth over the next five years,” shared Mayor Mobolade. “So, I again, there’s no guarantee what that will be. I mean, even as we talk about the Golden Dome, we’re all speculating because that is the biggest investment that has happened in the Trump administration and beyond. So we do expect we will get some of that. But I do not believe it’s limited to Golden Dome alone. But again, we’ve been told that we expect to see growth happening in our community.”
Colorado Springs Councilmember Roland Rainey of District 6 also spoke about the move. Councilman Rainey has an expensive background in space operations, during his military career he served as a three-time unit commander, operations and staff officer in U.S. Space Force (formerly known as Air Force Space Command), U.S. Space Command and the National Reconnaissance Office.
“When you talk about space in its totality, Colorado Springs is the true, bona fide Mecca of space operations. So space is continuing to expand, the defense industry has a love for the city. So I definitely see this as a great opportunity, as was already mentioned in reference to Golden Dome, for us to expand our forward-looking perspective on what Colorado could become moving into the future. I know there’s a lot of people that are nervous that was already mentioned about what does this mean for our military members, civilian members and their families. And I’m quite sure our senior military leaders are going to be working with the Pentagon to think through that process and make sure that those members and those families are taken care of, because that’s what our great leaders do. But when we talk about military capabilities, I can’t emphasize this enough. Colorado Springs and space operations, we are the center Mecca of space operations, and I definitely look forward to seeing us expand, moving into the future,” shared Councilman Rainey.
Colorado Republican Delegation Statement on Space Command HQ Meeting with the Administration:
“Over the past few days, there have been differing reports on what the impact of moving the U.S. Space Command Headquarters out of Colorado and to Alabama means for our State.
Today, we are pleased to report that our steadfast advocacy for Coloradans has made a meaningful difference. What was once expected to result in the loss of more than 1,700 jobs will now likely only impact approximately 1,000 positions in total. This marks a significant improvement from the original projection and a positive outcome for our state. Further, important operational elements of Space Command will remain in Colorado Springs, preserving much of the economic driver for our region.
We have also confirmed the move will take significant time to complete, and in the intervening years, the Department of War’s presence in Colorado is expected to continue its rapid growth. This includes the Space Force, which has grown by 1,500 personnel in Colorado since 2019, and is expected to grow an additional 500 positions in the next few years. Therefore, the growth of our Space Force operations has outpaced any loss.
The Colorado Republican delegation remains committed to ensuring that we are working with the Administration to minimize the impacts of this move and to continue to increase the space economy in Colorado.”
How this could impact the local economy
KRDO13 sat down with local economist Dr. Tatiana Bailey of Data-Driven Economic Strategies to learn more about the change.
“I don’t think it’s going to be catastrophic, especially since we already have such a strong presence here. And so many of these companies are here. Schriever is not going away. Fort Carson is not going away. So I, I still, you know, maybe I’m too much of an optimist, but I don’t see it impacting our growth from in the totality of economic development here,” explained Dr. Bailey.
Bailey says she also thinks it will be difficult for those in Alabama to pull people away from the Centennial State.
“You’ve got a pretty robust Colorado economy where a lot of these workers with 3% mortgages are turning around and saying, thanks. I’m going to stay in Colorado. I can find another job, either military with the large military presence that we have here or, you know, a remote job in Denver. You look at that ecosystem that we already have. I think Alabama is going to have a hard time filling the jobs that they need. And that’s…a huge disadvantage from a national security perspective,” shared the economist.
She also explained how important the high-paying jobs are to the area.
Jessie Kimber, the Director of Economic Development and military affairs liaison for the City of Colorado Springs, says that many of the contractors are already commuting back and forth between states.
“We have many defense contractors who split their time between Huntsville and Colorado Springs simply because they have many contracts,” stated Kimber.
“These are highly technical, professional-type jobs, usually six figures, and those are the types of jobs that you want to attract and you want to keep. So I am a bit concerned about that. But then my brain, you know, also goes back to listening to some of these CEOs who were saying, you know, we’re not moving our key people. They’re going to stay here, and they’re just going to fly down to Huntsville when they need to, or to L.A., or to D.C., or wherever they need to go. So hopefully a lot of those high-paying jobs are going to stay here anyway,” Dr. Bailey continued, “What I also heard from these companies is that the C-suite, if you will, will stay here. It’s been here for a long time, even with the ping pong that’s been going back and forth with, you know, where is headquarters? And that a lot of the middle and lower management positions have been in Huntsville, and that that’s not necessarily going to change.”
KRDO13 previously provided an explainer on the difference between the Space Force and Space Command.
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