Air Force officials visiting Peterson AFB and other Space Command finalists
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Starting next week, officials with the U.S. Air Force will visit the six finalists in the running to be the permanent home for U.S. Space Command.
Peterson Air Force Base is one of those finalists and is currently the temporary home for Space Command. The Pentagon is expected to make a final decision on where the headquarters will be at the start of 2021.
This will be the last opportunity for Colorado Springs to show the Pentagon that Peterson is the best location for Space Command. "Those are going to be two really big days," says Congressman Doug Lamborn who has been working to keep Space Command here.
On the 16th, officials will be at Peterson Air Force Base all day asking a variety of questions. Lamborn says, "They are going to talk the commanders of the various space related bases here to talk and make sure that they have their transportation needs met, the infrastructure met, if personnel are available when missions open up."
Which Lamborn says Colorado Springs already meets that criteria and more. Out of the nine Space force wings, seven of them are in Colorado. "We have the basic operations and people doing the war fighting right in place here right now," Lamborn says.
He also says since Space command is already here it would save a lot of money to keep it here. "It would cost billions of dollars to move it somewhere else," Lamborn says. "If they come and offer a few million dollars as an incentive, that pales in comparison by the cost avoided just by keeping it here in the first place."
Then on the 22nd, Governor Jared Polis and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers will give a presentation to those same leaders about why Colorado Springs is the best fit for military members and their families.
"We are working very hard in this last couple of weeks to put a product together that the community can be very proud of," Suthers says.
Overall, Suthers and Lamborn feel very confident that Peterson Air Force Base will become the permanent headquarters. Suthers says, "We have always contended that if this is a merit decision we have an incredibly good case."
The other five locations that are finalists are Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, Port San Antonio in Texas, Patrick Space Force Base in Florida, Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, and Redstone Army Airfield in Alabama.
