[Source: Reuters]

The Trump administration is planning to announce as early as Tuesday that it will relocate U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the deliberations.

The move appears to reward a state that overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump’s three Republican presidential bids, at the expense of one that opposed them, although the administration has not provided a reason for the move.

The Pentagon’s public affairs website said Trump was expected to make a “U.S. Space Command HQ Announcement” at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT). Later, that wording was removed from the website.

The decision would reverse a move made under former President Joe Biden’s administration, which had selected Colorado Springs as the permanent home for the military’s newest combatant command in 2023.

Space Command currently operates from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs on an interim basis.

About 1,700 personnel work at Space Command, according to congressional records.

Trump has often linked federal funding decisions and politics. The president previously blocked a move to put the FBI’s headquarters in Maryland, calling it a “liberal state,” and suggested linking disaster aid in California to the state’s policy decisions.

Huntsville, home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and a major hub for defense contractors, such as L3Harris (LHX.N), opens new tab and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab, has long lobbied for the Space Command headquarters.

The Space Command, established in 2019 under the first Trump administration, is responsible for military operations beyond Earth’s atmosphere and defending U.S. satellites from potential threats.

Defense officials have previously estimated that relocating the headquarters could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take several years to complete.

Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.