On Monday, leaders from Huntsville and Colorado Springs sat down together to talk about the future of Space Command.
More than 90 people from Colorado Springs — including elected officials, business executives and other community leaders — are in Huntsville through Wednesday for what organizers describe as a discovery trip.
Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade is part of that group, along with members of the El Paso County Commission and City Council. Executives from companies that operate in both areas also made the trip.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, is taking part in the meetings as a guest and keynote speaker.
Whiting has been overseeing the relocation of the command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville since President Donald Trump announced in September 2025 that Redstone Arsenal would become its permanent headquarters.
“America’s Olympic City and America’s Rocket City have extended incredible support to the men and women of U.S. Space Command through our ongoing headquarters relocation, helping ensure continued mission continuity and focus as we establish a footprint in Huntsville,” Whiting said. “We are grateful for the novel formation of this twin-city partnership and optimistic that it will continue serving our nation’s critical defense interests as space becomes an increasingly contested domain.”
The headquarters move is not finished yet.
More than 150 of Space Command’s approximately 1,800 personnel are now working at Redstone Arsenal. Officials expect that figure to be around 200 by the end of the year. By the end of 2028, half of the headquarters staff is expected to be in Huntsville.
A permanent joint operations center is planned on the Arsenal, with groundbreaking targeted for next year.
The meetings are also taking a look at Golden Dome and the potential for the two regions to contribute to the program.
Golden Dome, ordered by executive order in January 2025, is intended to create a layered defense against ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, as well as other advanced aerial threats.
A large part of Huntsville’s role in that work is already in place.
The city is home to the Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, U.S. Army Materiel Command, the Space Development Agency’s South Satellite Control Center and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Colorado Springs has its own major military and space presence, including the U.S. Space Force’s Combat Forces Command, Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base, NORAD and U.S. Northern Command.
The business connection between the two cities is significant, too. More than 70 aerospace and defense companies have operations in both.
Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Boeing are among the companies with positions under SHIELD, one of the contracting vehicles supporting Golden Dome development. Other Pentagon programs include work involving space-based sensing, interceptor technologies, hypersonic defense and command-and-control systems.
“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 & EDC. “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.”
Chip Cherry, president and CEO of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber, said moving quickly will be important as Golden Dome develops.
“With Huntsville’s and Colorado Springs’ central role in space and missile defense operations, our two regions are uniquely positioned to help support the next generation of homeland defense systems,” Cherry said.
The visit comes after a very different period between the two communities.
Colorado Springs hosted the re-established Space Command at Peterson Space Force Base beginning in 2019. When the decision was made to move the headquarters to Huntsville, it led to legal challenges and criticism from congressional delegations in both states.
Now, the Colorado Springs delegation is in Huntsville to see the place that will become Space Command’s permanent home and to look for other opportunities to work together.
The group is expected to tour Redstone Arsenal and NASA Marshall during the three-day visit. Meetings with Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and other local leaders are also planned.
The headquarters workforce is expected to make the full transition to Huntsville in the early 2030s, once the permanent facility is completed.
Zachary Austin is a writer for 256 Today. You can contact him at [email protected].
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