January 2021 Group Watch: “Rocket City” Living Up to the Name
The Secretary of the U.S. Air Force announced that Huntsville has been selected as the preferred location for the headquarters of the new U.S. Space Command, a move that is natural fit for Alabama’s “Rocket City” and its longtime support of space and defense programs. Goals of the new command are to better organize and advance the military’s extensive operations in space and to seek more effective ways to protect U.S. assets such as satellites that are crucial for communications, navigation and surveillance. Huntsville is home to Redstone Arsenal, which has been the center of the U.S. Army’s missile and rocket programs for more that 50 years. Also located at Redstone is NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which designed the Saturn V rockets that powered the Apollo program moon landings and continues to lead the nation’s space program.
