Space Command should reach full capability this year, making relocation a dangerous, expensive and ignorant choice.

Space Command Gen. James Dickinson, at the Space Symposium on Tuesday in Colorado Springs, reported on the command’s extraordinary progress. The looming milestone of reaching full capacity represents a giant step forward in space-based defense. It means a win for the United States and our allies around the globe.

Space Command leadership and personnel have advanced and stabilized the operation against the distraction of a stunt pulled by then-President Donald Trump as he left office in January 2021. Trump announced a dangerous and counterproductive plan to move Space Command from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs to an Army base in Alabama.

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Trump’s parting shot at Colorado would strand the command 1,300 miles from the Springs-based Space Force, the Air Force Academy and two of the country’s six Space Force bases based in Colorado Springs.

Trumps’ proposal would put Space Command nearly 700 miles from the nearest Space Force base near Melbourne, Fla., and 193 miles from the nearest major airport. It would detach the military’s brain for space from its body and appendages.

Trump’s decision was clearly done to spite Colorado for supporting President Joe Biden and reward Alabama for choosing Trump in a landslide. After Alabama favored Trump by a margin of 62-36, the state’s congressional delegation tried blocking Biden’s certification as winner of the nationwide popular and electoral vote.

“I single-handedly said, ‘Let’s go to Alabama (with Space Command),’ ” Trump said on Alabama radio in 2021.

“They wanted it. I said, ‘Let’s go to Alabama.’ I love Alabama.”

The childlike indulgence jeopardized national security, emboldened enemies of freedom and put Space Command in a lurch. Logic cannot explain why Biden failed to reverse Trump’s order long ago to mitigate potential destabilization of military space advancement.

Moving any command is a calculated setback. Precedence shows these moves cost the entities most of their civilian workforces. Rebuilding a command that is already standing comes at an enormous expense that doesn’t account for inevitable construction delays and cost overruns.

Trump’s vindictive order appears more irresponsible by the day.

China, Russia and North Korea are increasingly hostile toward the U.S. and our allies as they ramp up their military space capabilities.

They aren’t moving furniture, equipment and households. Instead, they’re moving ahead – ahead of us, while our commander in chief belabors a simple, commonsense decision to reverse Trump’s deceit.

The progress of Space Command in the past few years makes Trump’s wish more absurd than ever. After the command moves two steps forward, the move could set it three steps back.

Dickinson told the symposium that Space Command defends an area from 62 miles above the Earth to the edges of the universe.

If an irresponsible relocation takes place, maybe our enemies will take a doughnut break while we traipse across the country. If we ask nicely, maybe Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping won’t detonate an electromagnetic pulse while we make new digs in Huntsville.

Maybe Russia will go soft on Ukraine while we watch Love It or List It. We’d better hope so, given Space Command’s role in providing thousands of communications and warnings to NATO in defense of Ukraine. Please pause the war, Mr. Putin, while we arrange our desks.

“Every piece of our military operation is somehow grounded in space whether that’s maritime operations, air operations, land operations, cyber operations,” Dickinson said at the Space Symposium.

With Space Command just months from full capacity, Trump’s move would invite and facilitate more foreign aggression. Biden would further jeopardize peace to reward Alabama for trying to keep him out of the White House.

Stupidity is antithetical to freedom. We hope it is beneath our commander in chief and his administration. If so, Biden will nix Trump’s call and build on the standing Space Command.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board