Space Foundation News
Colorado Springs, Huntsville Leaders Unite Behind Space Command Move
Written by: Space Foundation Insights Team
Chip Cherry, president and CEO of the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce, and Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Council, speak to reporters at a joint press conference Oct. 5, 2026. HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Oct. 5, 2026) – Mayors and economic development leaders from Huntsville, Ala., and Colorado Springs, Colo., offered public assurances in a joint press conference Monday that the two communities are working together for a smooth transition as U.S. Space Command headquarters moves from Colorado to Alabama.
The mission of ensuring national security and the need to support U.S. service personnel are too vital to focus on past decisions about the best location for Space Command headquarters, leaders said. And the need to ramp up U.S. defense systems to counter evolving ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missile threats is too pressing. With the Golden Dome initiative moving toward demonstration and deployment, the two regions are uniquely capable of delivering the layered responses required under the Golden Dome missile defense system, officials agreed.
At a keynote address to Huntsville and Colorado Springs business leaders following the press conference, Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, praised the two communities for creating a twin cities partnership that serves operational necessity.
“Space is too big for one command, one service, one agency, or one company to do all that we have to do…,” Whiting said. “And I think maybe our nation’s space warfighting needs are also too big for one single city’s resources alone.”
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, speaks to reporters following his keynote address to a Colorado Springs and Huntsville delegation in Huntsville.
Mayors Offer Support
A delegation of more than 80 Colorado Springs city and county officials and business leaders traveled to Huntsville for a two-day site visit. Stops included Redstone Arsenal’s NASA’s Marshall Flight Center, the FBI Kinetic Cyber Range and the nearby Cummings Research Park. Huntsville business leaders joined to discuss how that region’s missile development expertise can pair with Colorado Springs’ operational capabilities.
On Monday, Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade acknowledged his city’s hard-fought campaign to keep the Space Command.
“There’s no reason to pretend that Colorado Springs and the city of Huntsville have not competed fiercely over the last several years. We have,” Mobolade said. “We fought for our communities because we believe in them…. But leadership is not only about how you compete. It is also about how we move forward when the competition is over.”
Colorado Springs and Huntsville share a lot of complementary connective tissue that serves the space industry and national defense, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said.
“We are both communities built around innovation, we’re built around service and we’re built around a deep commitment to our national security,” he said. “But our connection goes beyond our missions and our industries. Our residents move between our two cities. Our businesses have footprints in both communities. Our military personnel have ties to both places…. These relationships are only going to become stronger.”
A Common Purpose in National Security
More than 70 aerospace and defense companies, including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing, maintain operations in Colorado Springs and Huntsville. Golden Dome and other acquisition programs will present additional development opportunities for space-based sensing, interceptor technologies, hypersonic defense and command-and-control systems. Both regions have built significant technical expertise in those areas.
“No single organization or community can deliver a program as complex as Golden Dome alone,” said Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Council. “Colorado Springs and Huntsville each support critical elements of the nation’s space and missile defense architecture, and this effort highlights the value of aligning those capabilities as the program moves from planning to implementation.”
A Flurry of Federal Decisions
President Donald Trump has authorized several pivotal decisions in his second term. Together, they are reshaping the Space Force and bringing increasing defense responsibilities and growth to Huntsville and Colorado Springs.
In January 2025, a week after taking office again, he authorized Golden Dome by executive order. Recent administration estimates put its cost at $185 billion. A May 2026 Congressional Budget Office analysis places the cost closer to $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy and operate for 20 years. Congress through budget reconciliation authorized almost $25 billion for Golden Dome in fiscal year 2025. In September 2025, the president announced Space Command’s move to Huntsville.
Groundbreaking in the Alabama red clay happened in August, but as of Monday, the farm acreage still houses old chicken coops and grazing cows. In September, the federal government awarded Parsons an $85 million contract to build a nearly 1 million-square-foot facility. The new headquarters will be completed by 2032 and will support about 1,800 personnel. Nearly 200 Space Command personnel are working nearby at Redstone Arsenal as the transition begins.
Colorado Springs will see new facilities following a May announcement that expands Space Force operations there:
- Its new Infrastructure Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE), which oversees $4 billion in program development, planning, spending and acquisition, will locate to Peterson Space Force Base.
- Schriever Space Force Base will become home to a proposed $250 million Space Force Operations Facility that will support 2,500 employees.
- The number of second lieutenants coming to Peterson to complete the Officer Training Course will increase 300%, Whiting said.
“Capabilities are growing in Colorado Springs just as they’re growing here in Huntsville,” he said.
Colorado Springs also is home to the Space Force’s Combat Forces Command (CFC), the U.S. Air Force Academy, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM).
Symposium Plays a Role
During Space Foundation’s 41st Space Symposium this April in Colorado Springs, Whiting hosted the mayors and economic development leaders to discuss how the two communities would work together with Space Force to ensure the transition.
Huntsville officials have long attended Symposium because the technology on display helps the industry grow, Battle said.
“We’re all working in the space area, we’re all trying to grow space and we’re all wanting to make sure what we do is in the best interests of the country,” he added.
Mobolade said as the group’s April Symposium meeting ended, Whiting offered his assurances that personnel and their families that were based in Colorado Springs would be well taken care of in Huntsville.
“To me, that is leadership, and quite frankly, civility,” Mobolade said. “Because civility does not require us to abandon our convictions or stop competing for our communities. It means that we can compete without contempt, disagree without dishonoring, and when the moment calls for it, put something larger than ourselves first. Because the threats facing our country are bigger than any competition between our two cities. The mission of America must come first.”
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