U.S. Space Command is conducting space intelligence operations from existing offices at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, while construction continues on a permanent headquarters there, according to Defense One.
By the end of the year, the command plans to have roughly 200 of the 1,800 positions based in Colorado at the Army installation. About 50 personnel are already working from Alabama as part of the Joint Intelligence Support element, or JISE. The element analyzes information for space operations and coordinates with allied partners.
The Alabama-based analysts are working with colleagues who remain at Space Command’s existing headquarters in Colorado Springs. That arrangement is expected to continue for at least the next several years as personnel transfers and construction proceed in parallel.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, Space Command’s leader, said the facilities include collaboration spaces and tools that allow personnel in Huntsville to work with colleagues in Colorado Springs. The command is using those connections while its personnel and facilities remain divided between the two locations.
Whiting hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the JISE at Redstone Arsenal in April. The element is conducting analysis for space operations and coordinating with allies from existing offices on the installation.
Construction of the permanent headquarters and the related personnel moves are not expected to be complete until 2032. Space Command’s joint operations center, which serves as the command-and-control hub for space warfare missions, will remain in Colorado until the new headquarters is completed.
The relocation follows a political dispute over Space Command’s headquarters. In 2021, during the final weeks of his first term, President Donald Trump announced that the command would move from Petersen Space Force Base in Colorado to Redstone Arsenal. President Joe Biden reversed that decision in July 2023 and said the headquarters would remain in Colorado. President Trump later reversed the Biden-era decision, putting the move to Alabama back in motion.
The basing dispute led to congressional scrutiny and reviews by federal oversight agencies. An April 2025 Defense Department inspector general investigation questioned why the 2023 basing decision had been made by the White House rather than Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.
Kendall told lawmakers in 2023 that projected cost savings, together with possible measures to reduce operational risks, favored moving the command to Alabama. A May 2025 Government Accountability Office review found that keeping Space Command in Colorado would require new military construction to support headquarters operations. It also found that officials faced continuing personnel, facilities and communications challenges in establishing a permanent facility in the West.
Space Command’s headquarters operations therefore remain split during the construction period. The intelligence support element is operating from Alabama, while the existing headquarters and joint operations center continue operating in Colorado.
Whiting said the new site will provide a purpose-built command-and-control headquarters. The completed headquarters is expected to support Space Command’s operations after the personnel transfers and construction work are finished.