In September, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Space Command permanent headquarters will relocate from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.
Since 2019, Redstone had been among six sites under consideration for Space Command headquarters, and in 2021 then-Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett stated that Redstone was the preferred site based on five factors: mission, infrastructure capacity, community support, costs to the Department of War and mission impacts to full operational capacity.
A timeline to relocate was set at six years, and despite some back-and-forth in recent years — in 2023, President Joe Biden announced headquarters would remain in Colorado — Space Command will join NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the Missile Defense Agency in calling Redstone Arsenal, and Huntsville, “home.”
Space Command — not to be confused with Space Force, a military service branch — was officially established as the 11th combatant command on Aug. 29, 2019, by Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper at the direction of President Trump. It actively employs joint forces from the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force and is responsible for delivering space capabilities to joint and combined forces, as well as defending the space domain. In addition to military members, Space Command consists of civilian employees and contractor personnel.
For Chip Cherry, president and CEO of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, landing Space Command is a testament to Huntsville’s history of adaptability.
“If you think back to where we were prior to the Space Race, we were the watercress capital of the world and home to a champion milk cow,” he says, referring to Lily Flagg, a Jersey cow renowned for being the top butter producer in the world in 1892 and appearing at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.
“So, we go from that agrarian-based economy to the tip of the spear as we respond to Russia’s launch of the first satellite, and then the national effort to take man to the moon and soon, hopefully, the first woman and person of color. The community has been very resilient and willing to engage in new opportunities.”
He adds, “I would do a significant tip of the hat to our federal legislative delegation, coupled with local and state folks, for not letting the political process override an objective review. We were selected as a preferred site in the first round, and a lot of that had to do with some unique attributes of Redstone. It’s a very large installation and has a lot of developable land.”
Redstone Arsenal is a Federal Center of Excellence and one of the country’s most significant defense campuses. Originally established as a U.S. Army installation in 1941, Redstone became a hub for the Army’s rocket and missile programs after World War II and has since grown to support more than 75 tenant organizations.
Approximately 1,700 personnel are directly assigned to the Space Command headquarters in Colorado. Huntsville city officials say they are expecting roughly 1,400 employees to transition to the new headquarters over the next five years, a manageable number and timeline, especially considering the Arsenal already supports a daily workforce of roughly 45,000 people.
Additionally, the Huntsville metropolitan area has a proven track record for recruiting and landing major employers, such as the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing plant that started production in 2021 and supports 4,000 employees, or, more comparably, the FBI expanding its presence on the Arsenal.
“This isn’t our first rodeo,” says Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle. “When the Army Materiel Command, Army Aviation Command and the FBI expanded here, we worked closely with our partners to ensure employees and their families felt welcomed and supported.”
That includes offering a variety of housing options, Battle adds, and the city is working with Redstone to establish additional on-post military housing as well as working alongside business and community partners to help families get settled.
“From relocation support and school information to housing and local tours, we want new families to see why Huntsville is such an easy place to call home.”
Redstone Arsenal already has set aside office space for an advance team, and plans are underway to build a temporary operations facility consisting of a 450,000-square-foot campus with three 150,000-square-foot buildings. A roughly 60-acre site near the center of the Arsenal also has been identified for a 427,000-square-foot permanent facility that will eventually house all Space Command personnel.
“We’ve been preparing for this moment for years,” says Battle. “When we first competed for Space Command, we began planning for what its relocation would mean for our workforce, infrastructure and community resources. That work never stopped.”
In addition, Battle says the city is working with the state on long-term plans for upgrades to key corridors, including the Memorial Parkway overpass at I-565, completing the Northern Bypass and improvements to Highway 72. Other investments include Resolute Way, which will connect I-565 to Gate 9 at the Arsenal, and the East Arsenal access road, which will connect I-565 to a proposed Redstone gate near Triana Boulevard.
“These are all in our transportation pipeline to support the region’s next decade of growth,” Battle says.
With the groundwork laid for a smooth transition, it’s now just a matter of looking forward.
“We’re excited and honored to be in this space, to be part of the national infrastructure, to be able to defend the nation,” says Cherry.
“It brings high-level expertise, creates new opportunities for our workforce, and serves as a center of excellence that attracts even more talent and innovation,” says Battle.
“Each job connected to Space Command is a job multiplier, which makes this an exciting moment for the city of Huntsville.”
Katherine MacGilvray is a Huntsville-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.
This article appears in the December 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
