REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (WHNT) — With a name like “Space Command,” you would think that the move to America’s Rocket City would be a natural one. However, it didn’t start here.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump authorized the move of the U.S. Space Command’s Headquarters to Redstone Arsenal from its provisional headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs.
The command as we know it was established in August 2019, but for many Americans, this may feel like deja vu.
USSPACECOM is one of the 11 unified combatant commands within the Department of Defense. The command employs joint forces from the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Space Force and “is responsible for delivering space capabilities to joint and combined forces and protecting and defending the space domain.”
But in the beginning, that wasn’t the command’s sole purpose.
On July 4, 1982, President Ronald Reagan formally announced a National Space Policy. According to a report by the Joint History Office, the policy’s purpose committed the USA to “developing survivable and enduring space systems, an anti-satellite capability, and means for detecting and reacting to threats against U.S. space systems.”
Then-Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger initiated a study into how DoD space assets could be worked into future space defense operations. In March 1983, President Reagan unveiled the Strategic Defense Initiative, known as the “Star Wars” program, which was aimed at creating an “impenetrable shield” to protect against missiles from the Soviet Union.
In November 1983, after being advised by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, President Reagan formally approved the establishment of the command. In the year that followed, the Joint Chiefs began establishing the command and assigning missions and responsibilities.
The report stated that “US Space Command would integrate tactical warning and space operations, including control of space, direction of space support activities, and planning for ballistic missile defense.”
The JCS also began defining what the relationship between USSPACECOM and the US-Canadian North American Air Defense Command, or NORAD, should be. The former organization would replace the soon-to-be-deactivated Aerospace Defense Command as NORAD’s supporting command.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it was suggested that USSPACECOM merge with the U.S. Strategic Command to create a new combatant command, which kept the latter’s name.
U.S. Space Command was officially dissolved on October 1, 2002.
Flashforward 16 years later, a House Resolution introduced the National Defense Authorization Act, which reestablished the U.S. Space Command. Its purpose was to carry out joint space warfighting operations and create a “Space Rapid Capabilities Office” within the Air Force Space Command.
On August 29, 2019, President Donald Trump officially reestablished the command during a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden.
A list was made of six locations to be considered for permanent headquarters, including Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Schriever AFB, Peterson AFB, Buckley AFB, Vandenberg AFB and Redstone Arsenal.
Ultimately, Peterson AFB was named the temporary location while officials continued to analyze the options.
In January 2021, the Secretary of the Air Force, on behalf of the Office of Secretary of Defense, named Redstone Arsenal as the preferred permanent location for the headquarters
The DoD Office of the Inspector General released a report evaluating whether the Air Force complied with DOD and Air Force policies during the location selection process; used objective and relevant scoring factors to rank the six candidate locations; and calculated the cost and other scoring factors accurately and consistently among the six candidate locations.
The DoD found the process used by the Air Force “complied with law and policy, and was reasonable in identifying Huntsville as the preferred permanent location.”
In 2023, former President Joe Biden made the decision to keep Space Command at Peterson SFB.
The Associated Press reported that officials said Biden was convinced by Gen. James Dickinson, head of USSPACECOM. He said that moving the headquarters would jeopardize military readiness.
Dickinson’s viewpoint, however, was different from that of Air Force leadership, which studied the relocation in depth and determined that the move to Redstone Arsenal was the right move.
Just over two years later, on September 2, 2025, President Trump announced that USSPACECOM would be moving to the Rocket City after all.
Buildings and land have already been set aside for USSPACECOM personnel on Redstone. At a roundtable conversation on Wednesday, officials said those workers are expected to start arriving soon. Garrison Deputy Commander Martin Traylor said the new construction will take about 18 to 24 months to complete, and USSPACECOM will be operational in under three years.
The command’s arrival is slated to bring close to 1,400 personnel who are set to arrive over the next five years.
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