Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with US Space Command Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting last week to talk about how to fast-track the relocation of Space Command HQ from Colorado to Alabama.
Space Command created Task Force Voyager to manage the logistics of uprooting over 1,000 staff from Colorado and reestablishing SPACECOM capabilities at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL.
In his meeting with Hegseth, Whiting confirmed that SPACECOM would “identify efficiencies in relocating the headquarters per the president’s direction in an expedient manner,” according to a DoD statement.
History lesson: SPACECOM’s relocation is the result of a years-long tug-of-war between the Biden and Trump administrations. In January 2021, the Air Force recommended the move, only for President Joe Biden to nix the idea two years later. President Donald Trump then revived the idea in his second term, announcing in September that the move would go ahead as he originally planned.
With Task Force Voyager, and the recent meeting between Hegseth and Whiting, it appears the relocation is moving ahead—despite protests from Colorado officials, who filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration accusing the president of initiating the relocation to punish Colorado for its mail-in voting system. (Trump said Colorado’s mail-in voting “played a big factor” at a press conference concerning SPACECOM’s relocation.)
Timing is everything: Even if this lawsuit goes away, the relocation won’t happen overnight. In October, Redstone Arsenal Deputy Garrison Commander Martin Traylor said it could take as long as two years to move staff into a temporary facility, while the construction of a permanent HQ could take five to seven years to complete.
The State of Alabama has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to make the relocation possible: $425M to secure the headquarters, including $10M for temporary office space and $385M for infrastructure and transportation upgrades.
