September 3, 2025 • 6 mins
Rory O’Neill speaks with Mendte in the Morning about the recent announcement that Space Command will be moving to Alabama, and what that means.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, Donald Trump announced yesterday he's moving Space Command to Alabama.
First of all, I guess the question is what is
Space Command and why Alabama. Let's get that from Rory O'Neil,
wr national correspondent. He's with us every day at this time. Rory,
two big questions for you, What is Space Command and
(00:21):
why Alabama?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, and don't confuse Space Command and Space Force. A
lot of people make that mistake. So think of a
Central Command Scentcom as they call it. That's the part
of the Pentagon. It's based in Tampa, but they deploy
and they organize what forces will respond to events in
the Middle East, whether it's sending in an aircraft carrier,
sending in aircraft for bombing raids in Iran, that all
(00:44):
goes through Central Command. Well, space Command will do the
same thing for things in space, whether it's GPS, satellites, communications, satellites.
Maybe it's that incoming asteroid like we see in movies
like Armageddon, that's going to come under the purview of
Space Command space Com. And that would include the Air Force,
the Navy perhaps and even the Space Force, which is
(01:07):
an equal branch of the military, that would also fall
under Space Colm which is moving from Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I've been doing commentaries on Space Force for a long time,
and it is interesting that it gets some ridicule. There
was even a series if you remember, ridiculing it with
Steve Carell, and yet they've been talking about this since
Dwight D. Eisenhower. Yeah, I mean Reagan talked about it.
It is necessary. This is roy, this is where the
(01:38):
next war could be.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Fought, absolutely, and where the first strikes will likely be
if it is if we are to be attacked by
someone else with these capabilities. Yeah, to take out the
I mean imagine taking out GPS. You take out GPS,
then you take out the way that we It's how
we gained the targets for our weapons that we use,
(01:59):
or how ships know where they are at sea, those
kinds of things, and that's how most of us would
navigate around the streets of New York with with our GPS.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
So it's it's used in everything.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And that's just one little thing that space Com would
be responsible for managing and supervising. But as the President
said in the Oval Office yesterday, as we perhaps adopt
our own golden dome here in the us.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
He thinks they would be responsible for that as well.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Really so, so Space Command and that's the official name
for it now is Space Command Command. Space Command is
not that's space, that anything above the Earth really is space.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Right right, So Space Command.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So as Central Command, as I was saying, Central Command
is based in Tampa, and they handle the central part
of Africa and Asia. That's their scent com. That's where
that's their area of operation. So that's for sent Comm. Well,
space Com their area of operation will be space. And
as you point out, so many of our assets are
based there now. We rely on it more than we
(03:05):
know and it would be one of the first strategic
targets that our enemies would take out is our capabilities
in orbit.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, from what I understand Space Force, one of their
top priorities is just protecting the satellites and so that
makes a lot of sense because your satellites get taken out.
As you've just pointed out, that's a big problem.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Why Alabama, Well, because it has Rocket City and there's
a deep roots with NASA and it's and aerospace industry.
A lot of their headquarters are there. But this has
been a battle for about five years now between Colorado
and Alabama. Colorado's got the Air Force Academy, They've got Norrad.
You know, they've got a lot of assets there too.
But as President Trump said, this decision was not political.
(03:49):
But I won Alabama by forty seven points and Colorado
has a corrupt mail in ballot system.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But it's not a political decision.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, And Tommy Tuberville is a very good friend of
his too, And I know.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And Senator britt as well. She did that big speech
at the convention and things like that. But look, we
also have the history of this. Why do you think
the Johnson Space Centers in Houston, and it's name for
mister Johnson or the Vice Prize or then President Johnson.
You know, so it's a yeah, these have long been
sort of patronage decisions that have been made.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, how many jobs? How much money is involved in this?
Do we know?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
It's a few thousand jobs right now. This is a
pretty new branch of the government.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And then how this command because it's so isolated, or
it will be so isolated, Exactly how many have to
move in it's a little bit gray, but it's going
to be a few thousand workers that they're going to
have to make the move and the technology to go
with it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, I know you're also covering affordable retirement. Can we
talk about that really fast?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
What are the best and worst places to retire right now?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, best place, believe it or not, is Orlando, Florida,
believe it or not. But one of the ones that's
number one on the survey. A lot of the cities
that expect Scottsdale, Arizona, Miami for Lauderdale.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
One of the ones that threw me though.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Minneapolis, Minnesota comes in at number three on the survey,
so that was a bit of an outlier. But I
thought I was more struck by the fact that forty
three percent of Americans expect to keep on working until
they die.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Is that because New York? Is that because they don't
feel that they have enough money to retire?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, Newark comes in one hundred and seventy eight on
the list, Jersey City one sixty one, and I think
New York was one thirty seven.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
So not a great showing in this wallet hub survey.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Look, Newark is a great city, but I really have
not heard anybody say their dream was to retire in Newton.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Retire, but by the way worse, A whole bunch of
California City is way worse.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Oh good, are you to name them? I thought, that's
what that is leading to.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, no, I've got ad of them. I can name
for if you like, But no, you give me the worst.
I'm of the barrel.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
San Bernardino is the worst at number one eighty two.
Rancho Cucamonga comes in at one eighty and I just
like saying that. So that's why he wanted to men if.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Rory O'Neill wr national correspondent with US every day at
this time, showing off what he can pronounce. Thanks so much, Rory,
appreciate it.
Well, Donald Trump announced yesterday he's moving Space Command to Alabama.
First of all, I guess the question is what is
Space Command and why Alabama. Let's get that from Rory O'Neil,
wr national correspondent. He's with us every day at this time. Rory,
two big questions for you, What is Space Command and
(00:21):
why Alabama?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, and don't confuse Space Command and Space Force. A
lot of people make that mistake. So think of a
Central Command Scentcom as they call it. That's the part
of the Pentagon. It's based in Tampa, but they deploy
and they organize what forces will respond to events in
the Middle East, whether it's sending in an aircraft carrier,
sending in aircraft for bombing raids in Iran, that all
(00:44):
goes through Central Command. Well, space Command will do the
same thing for things in space, whether it's GPS, satellites, communications, satellites.
Maybe it's that incoming asteroid like we see in movies
like Armageddon, that's going to come under the purview of
Space Command space Com. And that would include the Air Force,
the Navy perhaps and even the Space Force, which is
(01:07):
an equal branch of the military, that would also fall
under Space Colm which is moving from Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I've been doing commentaries on Space Force for a long time,
and it is interesting that it gets some ridicule. There
was even a series if you remember, ridiculing it with
Steve Carell, and yet they've been talking about this since
Dwight D. Eisenhower. Yeah, I mean Reagan talked about it.
It is necessary. This is roy, this is where the
(01:38):
next war could be.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Fought, absolutely, and where the first strikes will likely be
if it is if we are to be attacked by
someone else with these capabilities. Yeah, to take out the
I mean imagine taking out GPS. You take out GPS,
then you take out the way that we It's how
we gained the targets for our weapons that we use,
(01:59):
or how ships know where they are at sea, those
kinds of things, and that's how most of us would
navigate around the streets of New York with with our GPS.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
So it's it's used in everything.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And that's just one little thing that space Com would
be responsible for managing and supervising. But as the President
said in the Oval Office yesterday, as we perhaps adopt
our own golden dome here in the us.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
He thinks they would be responsible for that as well.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Really so, so Space Command and that's the official name
for it now is Space Command Command. Space Command is
not that's space, that anything above the Earth really is space.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Right right, So Space Command.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
So as Central Command, as I was saying, Central Command
is based in Tampa, and they handle the central part
of Africa and Asia. That's their scent com. That's where
that's their area of operation. So that's for sent Comm. Well,
space Com their area of operation will be space. And
as you point out, so many of our assets are
based there now. We rely on it more than we
(03:05):
know and it would be one of the first strategic
targets that our enemies would take out is our capabilities
in orbit.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, from what I understand Space Force, one of their
top priorities is just protecting the satellites and so that
makes a lot of sense because your satellites get taken out.
As you've just pointed out, that's a big problem.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Why Alabama, Well, because it has Rocket City and there's
a deep roots with NASA and it's and aerospace industry.
A lot of their headquarters are there. But this has
been a battle for about five years now between Colorado
and Alabama. Colorado's got the Air Force Academy, They've got Norrad.
You know, they've got a lot of assets there too.
But as President Trump said, this decision was not political.
(03:49):
But I won Alabama by forty seven points and Colorado
has a corrupt mail in ballot system.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But it's not a political decision.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, And Tommy Tuberville is a very good friend of
his too, And I know.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And Senator britt as well. She did that big speech
at the convention and things like that. But look, we
also have the history of this. Why do you think
the Johnson Space Centers in Houston, and it's name for
mister Johnson or the Vice Prize or then President Johnson.
You know, so it's a yeah, these have long been
sort of patronage decisions that have been made.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, how many jobs? How much money is involved in this?
Do we know?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
It's a few thousand jobs right now. This is a
pretty new branch of the government.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And then how this command because it's so isolated, or
it will be so isolated, Exactly how many have to
move in it's a little bit gray, but it's going
to be a few thousand workers that they're going to
have to make the move and the technology to go
with it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah, I know you're also covering affordable retirement. Can we
talk about that really fast?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
What are the best and worst places to retire right now?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, best place, believe it or not, is Orlando, Florida,
believe it or not. But one of the ones that's
number one on the survey. A lot of the cities
that expect Scottsdale, Arizona, Miami for Lauderdale.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
One of the ones that threw me though.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Minneapolis, Minnesota comes in at number three on the survey,
so that was a bit of an outlier. But I
thought I was more struck by the fact that forty
three percent of Americans expect to keep on working until
they die.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Is that because New York? Is that because they don't
feel that they have enough money to retire?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, Newark comes in one hundred and seventy eight on
the list, Jersey City one sixty one, and I think
New York was one thirty seven.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
So not a great showing in this wallet hub survey.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Look, Newark is a great city, but I really have
not heard anybody say their dream was to retire in Newton.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Retire, but by the way worse, A whole bunch of
California City is way worse.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Oh good, are you to name them? I thought, that's
what that is leading to.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, no, I've got ad of them. I can name
for if you like, But no, you give me the worst.
I'm of the barrel.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
San Bernardino is the worst at number one eighty two.
Rancho Cucamonga comes in at one eighty and I just
like saying that. So that's why he wanted to men if.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Rory O'Neill wr national correspondent with US every day at
this time, showing off what he can pronounce. Thanks so much, Rory,
appreciate it.
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