WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that U.S. Space Command will be located in Alabama, reversing a Biden-era decision to keep it at its temporary headquarters in Colorado.
The long-expected decision from Trump caps a four-year tug of war between two states and opposing administrations about where to locate U.S. Space Command, an intense fight because the headquarters would be a significant boon to the local economy. Alabama and Colorado have long battled to claim Space Command, with elected officials from both states asserting their state is the better location.
“The U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City,” said Trump, repeating a nickname the city has used for decades already because of its early role in NASA and the U.S. space program. “We had a lot of competition for this and Alabama’s getting it,” added the president, flanked in the Oval Office by Republican members of Alabama’s congressional delegation.
Trump said Huntsville won the race for the Space Command headquarters, in part, because “they fought harder for it than anybody else.”
GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor of Alabama, said Huntsville is the “perfect place” for the headquarters and suggested it be named after Trump. And Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt, who stood next to Trump during the announcement, thanked Trump for “restoring Space Command to its rightful home.”
“The Biden administration chose to make this political,” she said. “What we want to do is put the safety and security of Americans first. We want to make sure our American war fighter is put first.”
In this photo released by the U.S. Air Force, Capt. Ryan Vickers stands for a photo to display his new service tapes after taking his oath of office to transfer from the U.S. Air Force to the U.S. Space Force at Al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar, Sept. 1, 2020. (Staff Sgt. Kayla White/U.S. Air Force via AP, File)
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