COLORADO SPRINGS — Leaders from 13 Colorado aerospace companies sent a letter to Colorado Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, where they express their support for making Colorado the permanent home of U.S. Space Command.
Some of the aerospace companies that signed the letter include Voyager Space Holdings, The Renuart Group, Orbit Fab, and more.
In the letter, the leaders make their case about why the state would be the best location for U.S. Space Command which says in part:
“Colorado’s dynamic aerospace ecosystem is the force multiplier in our ability to deliver innovation to our national defense and space missions Colorado is our chosen home because of the proximity to one another and to the defense missions. The aerospace industry draws a talent pool, provides access to robust University research, and allows for daily interactions with mission partners.”
In 2020, it was announced that Peterson Air Force Base would be the provisional headquarters for U.S. Space Command for the next six years. Then, in 2021 it was announced that Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama would be the permanent headquarters.
There are currently two investigations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Department of Defense Inspector General into the propriety of the decision and the basing process.
In August 2021, Former President Donald Trump claimed that he was the one who decided that Space Command should move to Alabama from Colorado Springs.
“Space force - I sent to Alabama,” Trump said via a telephone interview on an Alabama-based syndicated radio show. Despite saying Space Force, he was referring to Space Command. “I hope you know that. (They) said they were looking for a home and I single-handedly said ‘let’s go to Alabama. They wanted it. I said let’s go to Alabama. I love Alabama.”
In a memorandum sent to the Secretary of the Air Force, the Inspector General said the objective of the investigation is to "review the basis for selecting Huntsville, Alabama, as the preferred permanent location of the U.S. Space Command headquarters."
The memo went on to say the Inspector General will evaluate the extent to which the Department of the Air Force, complied with DoD and Air Force policies during the location selection process, used objective and relevant scoring factors to rank the six candidate locations, and calculated the cost and other scoring factors accurately and consistently among the six candidate locations.
A number of Colorado lawmakers added their signatures to a letter requesting that President Joe Biden conduct a thorough review of the decision to move Space Command. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper signed the letter, as did Representatives Doug Lamborn, Joe Neguse, Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter, Jason Crow, Ken Buck, and Lauren Boebert.
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