Colorado lawmakers say President Donald Trump’s decision to move U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs to Alabama discounts national security concerns and could yet be overturned.

“National security should trump everything,” said former U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs.

But reversing the decision announced on Tuesday could be tough, because Trump has more than three years left in office. Local political and business leaders emphasize that Colorado Springs’ space economy will remain healthy, no matter what happens.

Several companies remain committed to their expansion plans, and a space and missile defense company announced it was moving to Colorado Springs two days after Trump’s announcement.

If Space Command moves, 1,000 positions — 400 uniformed and 600 civilian jobs — would leave Colorado Springs for Huntsville, Ala., according to the office of U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colorado Springs. Space Force is a military branch with a large presence at Peterson and Schriever Space Force bases.

Space Command brings together service members from across the branches to protect U.S. satellites 62 miles above Earth that enable communications, provide GPS, collect intelligence, and monitor for missile attacks. Once, the orbits were largely inhabited by U.S. military satellites but have become ever more crowded, as companies and other nations, particularly China, launch hundreds of new satellites. 

With more traffic comes more threats in space. Russia has planned to put a nuclear weapon in space and China in 2021 tested a hypersonic missile that traveled 25,000 miles through space, Gen. Stephen Whiting, who leads Space Command, said in written congressional testimony.

The missile struck a target in China, but it just as easily could have hit inside the U.S., he said.

Whiting has called for the U.S. to put weapons in space to counter the threats from other countries. Space Command would oversee the use of weapons in space, just as Central Command directs military action in the Middle East.

During a relocation, Space Command is likely to lose a large portion of its civilian workforce, and it’s likely to cost between $2 billion-$3 billion to put in critical communications infrastructure. It’s also likely to take several years, and the first hurdle could be securing the funding through the congressional budgeting process to build a new headquarters building in Alabama.

Lamborn said Trump’s decision does not take into account national security concerns of ensuring the command is ready to respond to threats in space. Lamborn was one of the leaders in the fight to keep Space Command over most of the past four years. He left office in November.

“Readiness is the most important national security consideration, and having Space Command where it’s up and ready and has reached full operational capability is critical for national security,” Lamborn said.

A Space Command spokesman said the agency could not comment on statements made by Colorado lawmakers on national security. But through the move the command will remain focused on the mission, he said. 

Crank: Civilians likely to remain

In the wake of the announcement, Crank said he is focused on ensuring the mission-critical civilian workforce stays here in Colorado Springs.

“After discussions with the administration regarding the possible U.S. Space Command headquarters move, I have learned that, while the move was originally expected to cost Colorado Springs 1,700 jobs, the impact to civilian workers at the Command will now likely be limited,” Crank said.

He said he’s certain Space Force units will continue to grow locally. Space Operations Command employs about 15,000 personnel at Peterson and Schriever space force bases and Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station.

Crank also agreed national security is critical.

“We can’t afford to have any gaps in our operational capability. Our adversaries in Russia and China are only accelerating their space programs.”

Lamborn noted it could take five years to move the command, pushing it out into a different presidential administration and giving the Colorado delegation a long enough timeline to reverse the decision.

“We should keep fighting,” he said.

The entire Colorado congressional delegation said in a statement earlier this week they would work to reverse the decision.

At the same time, about 10 representatives from the Space Command traveled to Huntsville last week to determine how to move efficiently, a Space Command spokesman said.

Martin Traylor, the deputy to the garrison commander at Redstone Arsenal, said Space Command could be moved into temporary facilities in three years, AL.com reported.

But ahead of that in January 2027, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., will have reached the end of his three-term limit as chair of the powerful House Armed Services Committee. 

“I am hoping that cooler heads will prevail as time goes by,” Lamborn said, adding that if another lawmaker takes over the committee, the new leadership could more objectively evaluate the value of leaving Space Command in Colorado Springs, without “all of the emotion of the hometown factor.”

Lamborn said he felt that Colorado representatives at all levels, from the city of Colorado Springs up to Congress, fought hard to keep Space Command, but it was impossible to overcome Trump’s opinions.

“Trump had these very strong feelings about wanting to reward Alabama,” he said.

The president also said in his announcement that Colorado’s mail-in ballot system that leads to “crooked elections” played a “big factor” in his decision. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and others pushed back on his statements, calling the state’s election system a gold standard.

Golden Dome future?

Others in Colorado Springs seemed to have moved on from the long fight over the command and seemed poised to focus on other opportunities, such as investment in the new missile defense system called Golden Dome that the Trump administration has already set aside $21.6 billion to fund.

The Golden Dome is still in the planning stages and Gen. Michael Guetlein, charged with overseeing the project, hopes to rely largely on existing technology but has not landed on an architecture for it.

However, former Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers noted that as political decisions are made about Golden Dome, Colorado will still have a mail-in ballot system and will still largely be a blue state.

“The politics that resulted in this remain,” he said, noting that he hopes there will be plenty of business to go around regardless.

However, Suthers noted presidential terms are relatively short compared to the long-term planning required for investments in space.

“I think we have got every reason to believe we will be a very important part of the space ecosystem,” he said.

State and local economic development officials said this week they’re confident Colorado’s and El Paso County’s aerospace and defense industries won’t be weakened by Space Command’s relocation to Alabama, a point underscored by a company announcing expansion plans on Thursday.

Colorado “remains critical to national defense as well as the growing commercial aerospace sector,” the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) said in a written statement Friday.

Companies working in the aerospace and defense sectors in Colorado Springs largely echoed the sentiments. Many local companies have offices in Huntsville, as well.

In the past five years, aerospace businesses in the state have grown by more than 26%. Colorado’s roughly 2,000 aerospace businesses employ more than 55,000 people directly and 184,000 indirectly, according to a Nov. 22, 2024, blog post on OEDIT’s website. There are more than 250 companies in Colorado Springs that provide advanced technologies in national defense, global positioning systems, cybersecurity and satellite communications, the post said.

In fiscal year 2023-2024, Colorado brought in a record-breaking combined $38 billion in federal aerospace and defense funding. That included $23.3 billion for companies headquartered in the state. Other notable contracts brought $12.3 billion in federal funding to Colorado’s five large military bases and $3.4 billion to federal research labs, according to a separate OEDIT blog post in late 2024.

Colorado’s aerospace industry is split roughly between manufacturing in the Denver area where companies are building satellites, moon rovers, and the new spaceplane Dream Chaser, and Colorado Springs, where companies are more focused on space traffic control.

Colorado Springs is a central node in the international effort to monitor space traffic where objects travel at mind-boggling speeds in excess of 18,000 mph.

“Our state will continue to lead the development of this critical industry as these companies innovate new technologies key to space communications, the commercialization of space and national security. Here, they benefit from a full-spectrum aerospace ecosystem helping return Americans to the moon (and) supporting the development of the James Webb Space Telescope, which has helped us see the universe in new ways,” OEDIT wrote in part on Friday.

Springs a strategic hub

Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and L3Harris, some of the largest global defense contractors with locations in Colorado Springs, did not specifically address how Space Command’s move might impact their investments or employment in town, but said they will remain involved in supporting the U.S. military’s work in space.

A number of smaller aerospace- and defense-focused companies, who since 2022 have announced plans to expand in Colorado Springs, said they don’t intend to move out of town to follow Space Command. Those expansions promised to bring thousands of new jobs and more than $2 billion in investments.

One company was not deterred by the announcement, unveiling plans on Thursday, to expand its operations — which includes defense and missile tracking — in Colorado Springs.

Mobius is a woman-owned small business specializing in space and missile defense. The company, which has offices in Washington, D.C., Huntsville and now Colorado Springs, does not believe the decision to move Space Command headquarters will impact the overall future of the Colorado Springs tech and defense sector.

“We remain fully confident in the long-term strength of Colorado Springs as a strategic hub,” said Mobius President Frank Privitera. “This expansion isn’t about choosing one location over another — it’s about deepening our footprint in a place that’s already proven to be a great fit for our mission and our people.”

Mobius plans to hire 75 people in Colorado Springs, expanding its 160-person-strong workforce across its three locations.

The state’s aerospace and defense economy, though likely to take a hit, is well-positioned to remain resilient, said Bill Craighead, the head of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Economic Forum. He called the decision to relocate Space Command headquarters an economic disappointment, but a manageable one, pointing out the number of jobs lost to the move — relative to the regional economy — isn’t large.

“We are losing the proximity to the command as a selling point, so it could diminish our momentum a little, but one of the most important things, especially in technical areas that require particular skills, is workforce,” he said. “We have a strong workforce in this area, especially with so many highly educated veterans with DoD experience, and also the connection with Colorado’s aerospace industry.”

Craighead also emphasized the desirability of Colorado Springs, which companies often use to attract talent.

“I think we’ll still be highly competitive as a location for defense contractors,” he said.

Gazette’s Breeanna Jent and Alexander Edwards contributed to this report.