A decision may be made just weeks from now regarding where the permanent headquarters of the U.S. Space Command will be made.
In early 2021, President Donald Trump announced that the headquarters would be located at the Redstone Arsenal, just outside of Huntsville, Alabama. That decision was made after a protracted reviewing process that ended up seeing six bases as finalists for the Space Command’s primary location, with the Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs thought to be near the top of that list.
But in the last year, members of the Colorado congressional delegation have urged the Biden Administration to reject the Alabama base in favor of Peterson as the Space Command’s headquarters.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis recently remarked to the Denver Post that “Colorado is the epicenter of national security space and Peterson Space Force Base continues to execute critical missions in the space domain.”
A report issued this summer by the Government Accounting Office questioned whether Trump and the Department of Defense had used the correct criteria in selecting the Redstone Arsenal over Peterson. The GAO report additionally identified what it called “significant shortfalls” in both transparency and credibility in the selection of the Alabama base, although it fell short of saying that any laws were violated.
The GAO report, however, did not recommend where the Space Force’s headquarters should be located.
According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has appeared to be receptive to “arguments made by Colorado lawmakers that it would be significantly faster and cheaper to renovate and secure Space Command’s existing facilities rather than to build the whole thing from scratch elsewhere.”
Lobbying for Peterson is expected to continue until the Biden Administration makes a final decision in the matter.
By Garry Boulard
