During a news conference at the White House Tuesday, President Trump announced that U.S. Space Command, a unified combatant command of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for military operations in space, will be moved from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado to the Army's Redstone Arsenal in North Alabama.
When Trump reestablished Space Command in his first term, he originally wanted it in Huntsville, but Joe Biden changed it to Colorado for political reasons.
Derek Jones, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, says that was an expensive, vindictive, and woke move at which everyone "shook their heads."
"Fortunately, some of the contracts and some of the things took a little time," Jones notes. "But Biden is out of office, and Trump was able to go in and with Secretary [Pete] Hegseth's recommendation ... to fix this right away."
While Hegseth believes the U.S. is winning the space race, he says the Spacecom move will ensure the country stays "leaps and bounds ahead," because space is the most important domain.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D), however, says the Trump administration is wrong for playing political games. He claims this is "unlawful," and he is prepared to challenge it in court.
But Huntsville is already home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and the state's leaders echo Jones' excitement over the move.
"Alabama is going to be perfect for Space Command," Jones asserts. "That synergy of working in space already existed there. And then, of course, Redstone is vital to our security and technology leadership."
The new facility will be built on acreage at the center of the arsenal. The move will bring hundreds of billions of dollars in investments and more than 30,000 jobs to The Yellowhammer State.
