Space Command wants to move nearly 200 people to new Alabama HQ this year

Space Command aims to move about 200 people from Colorado to its new headquarters in Alabama by year's end. 

“I'm happy at the progress that we're making, and that progress will continue over the next couple of years as we work to get a significant portion of our staff there, even while the permanent headquarters is being built,” Gen. Stephen Whiting, who leads U.S. Space Command, told senators during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday. 

The command’s move has been a matter of hot political debate. In his first term President Donald Trump pushed to move the command to a 60-acre site in Huntsville, Alabama. The Biden administration in 2023 reversed the original decision to move the headquarters to Alabama, but Trump reversed it again in 2025.

Right now, Space Command has a small, 20-person office in Redstone Arsenal, with plans to increase that number tenfold by year's end. 

“By the end of this year, we are targeting that number to be closer to 200 people that will be working from Redstone, from our headquarters, of course. That will be paced with the delivery of interim facilities that are appropriate to the security classification level we need, and that we have all of the appropriate IT networks,” Whiting testified. 

The command is updating existing facilities, with plans to open a top-secret facility that can accommodate up to 80 people in April, Whiting said. Then the plan is to start moving people who work at that classification level. 

To hit that 200-person target, the command is offering workers incentives.

“We are offering relocation incentives for our workforce in Colorado to consider moving to Alabama,” Whiting said. “We also are offering retention incentives, because I need my workforce to stay with me in Colorado until their function is ready to move.”