Space Command Moving to Alabama

President Trump announced that Space Command is moving to Alabama. NBC News Radio Nationa Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins us with the details. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, if you were planning a family vacation to go
see Space Command, hold on before you put your GPS
coordinates in Since West Michigan's Morning New Steve Kelly, bred Makita,
and Laurence Smith, Rory O'Neil, NBC News Radio National corresponding,
Good day to you.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hey, there's Steve. Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Talk to us a little bit. Space Command is a
real thing, but it's moving. So what is it and why?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, Space Command is essentially an entity that's supposed to
be coordinating our response to everything space related. So if
it's about a satellite, if it's about an asteroid that's
coming to hit us, like armageddon or whatever it may be,
that would all fall under Space Command. And just so
that people know the difference, there's Space Command the same
way we have Central Command Centcom as they call it.

(00:44):
It's based in Tampa, Florida, but it controls how the
military responds in the Middle East. That's their area of responsibility,
so they'll deploy the Army, Navy, whatever via Central Command
to respond to actions in the Middle East. Well, Space
Command or space does the same thing for space and
it has assets like the Space Force which it can

(01:05):
deploy as necessary for our interests in space.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I've always wanted a concise definition of that, and we've
found it. So why is it moving?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Well, now that's politics, you know. Essentially. President Biden had
said no, Well, because the Space Command is relatively new
and they were still sort of deciding where should it be.
Biden administration was sort of a murky bit of reasoning,
said let's just keep it in Colorado where it's been.
That's where the Air Force Academy is. That's where Northern
Command North Comm nor Rad rather nor Rad which Santa

(01:39):
Tracker wargames for older people. But yeah, so so they said, oh,
let's just keep Space Command there. And now President Trump
saying thank you to a couple of senators from Alabama,
also noting in the press conference, well I won Alabama
by forty seven points. That's why we're moving it there.
And Colorado has a corrupt male and ballot system. So

(02:01):
o rory. How many people are with Space Command?

Speaker 1 (02:05):
What kind of moving effort is this going to be?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, it's not huge. I think it's like fifteen hundred people.
And they're going to Huntsville, Alabama, which has a deep
tradition with NASA. That's where they developed and made all
the rocket motors. They call it Rocket City, so they
make the rocket engines there in Huntsville. So there are ties.
There are a lot of NASA operations. You know, mission
control for NASA is in Houston. Of course, we launched

(02:28):
them from NASA here in Florida. So everyone sort of
has their area of responsibility. One concern has been just
moving to be difficult in that that means we're probably
going to lose a bit of our readiness during the move, right,
Like when you move house, you're not at you're not
at your a game if you're moving from one location
to another. That's what they're afraid may happen here. It's

(02:51):
going to be upfront costs that are significant, but the
argument is longer term, it's cheaper to live in Huntsville,
Alabama than most any other spot in the Cuntry.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, and since the thing is so young anyway, it's
not like they're just going to upgrade equipment and then
turn the new stuff on when they get there, right,
So kind of like radio station's moving.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, and it's like moving people as well. And you know,
and you know, Charlie runs the shift from eight into eleven,
Well who's going to do it tomorrow? And you know
those sort of things.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
It's it's uh, it's a ponderance. Rory and Neil in
just see this Radio National Correspondence always great stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Thank you, Thanks Steve,