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U.S. President Donald Trump announced on the 2nd (local time) that the U.S. Space Command will be relocated from its current location in Colorado to Alabama.

This decision overturns the previous Biden administration's decision to keep the Space Command in Colorado, and attention is focused on whether this announcement will put an end to the years-long controversy over the relocation of the Space Command.

President Trump said at the White House on the same day, "I am pleased to announce that the Space Command headquarters will be relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, a beautiful place," adding, "Huntsville will be known as the 'Rocket City' from now on and forever."

He continued, "Alabama will see the creation of over 30,000 jobs and attract hundreds of billions of dollars in investment," and "More importantly, this decision will help the United States strengthen its defense and leadership in the (space) frontier."

Huntsville, Alabama, is home to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), Redstone Arsenal, and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and is nicknamed the 'Rocket City'.

Colorado, where the Space Command's temporary headquarters are currently located, and Alabama, which has been considered a candidate for the headquarters, have competed for years to host the Space Command, which is directly linked to revitalizing the local economy.

The Space Command performs missions such as satellite-based navigation support, military communications, and missile launch warnings.

In January 2021, towards the end of the first Trump administration, the U.S. Air Force selected Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, as the preferred site for the Space Command headquarters after reviewing six candidate locations, considering infrastructure conditions, community support, and costs.

However, in 2023, then-President Biden announced that the Space Command would be permanently based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, citing that the relocation of the headquarters should not disrupt military readiness.

With President Trump, a Republican with strong support in Alabama, successfully regaining the presidency, expectations that the Space Command would move to Alabama have been steadily rising.

President Trump said on the same day, "We originally selected Huntsville as the location for the Space Command headquarters, but the Biden administration unjustly interfered," adding, "This (Space Command) will hopefully be there (in Alabama) for hundreds of years."

He then criticized Colorado's voting system, saying, "Colorado adopted mail-in voting, which automatically leads to election fraud."

Hankyoreh · Yonhap News