Puttin’ People on the Moon
By 
There’s gotta be a Drive By Truckers song in here somewhere…
President Donald Trump plans to announce Tuesday that U.S. Space Command will move from Colorado to Alabama, according to three people familiar with the decision.
The cross-country move reverses former President Joe Biden’s decision not to relocate the command, which oversees military space operations and the defense of satellites. It also reinstates a plan Trump made in the final days of his first term.
The decision ends a bitter yearslong turf war between Alabama and Colorado leaders over the best home for the unit. Each side argued the other benefited from politically motivated decisions by either Trump or Biden to reward states that voted for them.
Long-term enthusiasts of the podcast will recall a conversation I had with a Lieutenant Colonel in the Colorado National Guard about space, the artillery, and space artillery. As for this decision… Space Force is probably better situated in Colorado than in Alabama because of the proximity to significant regional innovation hubs, but the difference isn’t really anything worth fighting a national-scale batter over. I do have to say that punishing a D+10 state in favor of an R+30 state tells us some interesting things about how the Trump administration approaches politics…