The headquarters of NASA and US Space Command are caught in a nationwide clash that has many in the US civil and military space workforce wondering: should I stay or should I go?
Both headquarters are in the crosshairs of state lawmakers trying to make the best case for relocation.
One small step: The lease for NASA’s HQ in Washington, DC is up for renewal in 2028. While the agency is searching around DC for a viable replacement, officials from Texas, Florida, and Ohio have spent the last few months putting their states forward to house future operations.
- 27 lawmakers from Texas penned a letter to President Donald Trump last week urging him to move NASA HQ to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, arguing that JSC is already home to the largest NASA workforce in the country.
- Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) introduced a bill in the Senate last month, which would require that NASA HQ be transferred to Brevard County (the home of Cape Canaveral).
- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) sent his own letter to the president last month, making the case for NASA HQ to relocate to the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH.
While each state argues it can house the headquarters in its own NASA facilities, the decision may come down to dollars spent. The Trump administration is adamant that federal agencies should base major decisions on cost-cutting considerations. NASA’s acting administrator, Janet Petro, echoed that money will be a driving force in future decisions.
“One of the executive orders requires us to look at our agency organization and all of its components and see if there’s some optimization or some efficiencies that might be gained by either combining or relocating to more cost-efficient areas,” Petro said at Space Symposium this month.
Petro also confirmed at the conference that NASA would generate options for implementation by Jared Isaacman, the Trump administration’s pick to lead NASA.
Desert power: At the same time, the US Space Force’s Space Command headquarters, operating out of Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, CO, has faced renewed calls for its relocation.
The first Trump administration selected Huntsville, AL as the HQ, but the Biden administration instead chose the Colorado base as the ideal HQ. A recent report showed that moving the HQ to Alabama afterwards would have saved the DoD $426M. SPACECOM leadership, however, was hesitant to back the move, citing worries that the command center’s civilians, reserves and contractors may be unwilling to leave their mountain homes.
Despite these concerns, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) seem confident that the order to relocate the command center to the Yellowhammer State could come soon.
