President Donald J. Trump announced Tuesday that U.S. Space Command will move its headquarters from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
“I am thrilled to report that the U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama,” Trump said at the White House. He joked the city will now be known as “Rocket City.”
Trump claimed the move would bring more than 30,000 jobs and “hundreds of billions of dollars in investments” to Alabama. He also said the command will be central to building the planned Golden Dome for America missile defense system, stemming from his Jan. 27, 2025, executive order calling for a shield against foreign aerial attacks and a guaranteed second-strike capability.
“We were losing the race in space very badly to China and Russia, and now we’re far and away No. 1 in space,” Trump said. “We’re reestablishing Spacecom with a mission to protect American space assets and detect any threat to our homeland.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised Trump’s decision, saying the move restores Spacecom “to precisely where it should be” for long-term strategic advantage. He added, “Whoever controls the skies will control the future of warfare; and, Mr. President, today you’re ensuring that happens.”
Spacecom was originally established in September 1985, disestablished in 2002, and reestablished in 2019 during Trump’s first term.