US President Donald Trump announced that the country's Space Command will be moved from Colorado to Alabama, reversing a Biden-era decision to keep it in the western mountain state, the Associated Press reported.
Space Command's functions include conducting operations such as providing satellite navigation and communications to troops, as well as issuing warnings about missile launches. Alabama and Colorado have long been competing for Space Command because of its significant impact on the local economy. Officials from both Alabama and Colorado argue that their state is the better place.
„The headquarters of US Space Command will move to a beautiful place called Huntsville, Alabama, which will forever be known as Rocket City. "We had a tough competition for this, and Alabama gets it," Trump said. He added that Huntsville won the race to host Space Command in part because "they fought harder for it than anyone else."
Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor of Alabama, said Huntsville was the "perfect place" for the headquarters and suggested it be named after Trump. Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt, who stood next to Trump during the announcement, thanked him for "restoring Space Command to its rightful home."
Trump added that when he created Space Command in his first term, he planned to base it in Alabama, but the Biden administration decided to put it in Colorado.
"The Biden administration chose to make this political," Britt said. "What we want to do is put the safety and security of the American people first. We want to make sure that our American warfighter comes first," she added.
Trump said one of his problems with Colorado is that it allows for all-mail voting, which he says encourages fraud. "The problem with Colorado is they have a very corrupt electoral system," he added.
The U.S. Space Command said on Twitter after the announcement that it "stands ready to carry out the president's instructions following today's announcement of Huntsville, Alabama, as the permanent headquarters of the command."
Huntsville, Alabama, nicknamed "Rocket City," has long been home to the Army's Redstone arsenal and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The Space and Missile Defense Command of the Ground Forces is also located in Huntsville, which earned its nickname for its role in building the first rockets for the U.S. space program.
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said that over the next five years, about 1,400 Space Command jobs will be transferred to “Redstone” .