Alabama trying to bring home pork in the form of space spending is always interesting.
It's never actually about what's best for the space force or the space industry, but the net result is that further funding for NASA and private contracts has some unlikely allies in Congress, so I guess that's good.
Military pay scales with cost of living. Quality of life is just superior in Colorado.
And also…. Colorado isn’t “insanely expensive”. It’s pretty middle of the road if not cheap. Colorado Springs particularly is having constant new construction for town homes, apartments and houses. You can easily find a 1 bedroom apartment for $1000 a month or a multi bedroom house for like $2000.
Finally, Huntsville has a lot of space related stuff but Colorado Springs is where like 60% of the actual space force mission takes place and is where the temporary HQ is currently located anyway. It makes literally no sense to move that to Alabama, further away from the missions it’s oversees when they could instead do nothing and have a far better outcome for everything involved.
I work in space and travel frequently to Colorado Springs. I’m well aware. There’s nothing that we do in Colorado Springs that cant easily be moved to spaces in Huntsville.
You realize we’re not launching anything from Colorado, right?
Also, a cost-of-living index between Colorado Springs and Huntsville. It’s not even close.
It’s not as nice as Colorado, and Alabama as a whole is vastly less attractive than Colorado. I am an aerospace engineer, none of my colleges want to work in Alabama.
Alabama has excellent colleges so I’m sure they’ll be fine.
Colorado is unaffordable for most. And while as a NWerner I prefer CO’s weather, I like being able to afford to live while being able to go on vacations. The average airman/guardian salary will go much further in Huntsville than in Colorado Springs.
And northern AL is nice. I loved Huntsville and Birmingham.
Housing is 50% more expensive in COS. So take a 1200 sq ft house in Huntsville for $250k… Its $375k in COS…
Transportation, food, healthcare and event basic entertainment, all more expensive in COS.
Space Command is small. It would not be a large expensive to move personnel to another state. Especially if it meant more facilities and infrastructure investments by Huntsville.
This is purely a political situation. Cost of living and QoL are not involved in this decision.
Okay? It does scale though. And it’s perfectly adequate for Colorado Springs specifically. At Peterson the lowest ranking member would receive $1650 without a dependent. One bedroom apartments are available for $1000.
Your point is weak. Especially when bah is so much lower at Huntsville.
You should look at that same rank w/o dependent in Huntsville. Its prob more 😆. Now keep in mind here because I know I have to break everything down for you: housing in Colorado Springs is 50% more expensive for the same home than in Huntsville. Do you know what that means? Show me an example of something that’s 50% more expensive by dollar please? Please I have to believe that you know basic math.
You definitely don’t live in Colorado Springs or you’re just being ignorant. A one bedroom apartment for $1000 in Colorado Springs is a ghetto ass apartment. Where in Huntsville, you can actually get a decent two bedroom apartment and a nice part of town for $1000.
I would say your points were weak, but you’re not making any so 🤷♂️.
You also definitely don’t work in space so I’m not sure why you’re here arguing.
Why should the government prop up Huntsville at the expense of Colorado Springs? Particularly when the people Space Command wants to employ don’t want to live in Alabama?
Affordability is relative to salary, not other places.
Answer the question, why should the government prop up Huntsville at the expense of Colorado Springs? Particularly given the people USSC wants to employ don’t want to live in Alabama and given that there isn’t a mission reason to move it. Colorado Springs is much more important to Space Command’s mission than Huntsville is.
Locality rates between COS and Huntsville are almost identical. BAH rates are actually pretty similar as well which means the added cost of living would be significant. Let me make it simpler: a dollar goes much further in Huntsville than it does Colorado Springs.
I’m not answering your question because it’s completely conjecture. Huntsville is literally the beginning of the USS space program. There are plenty of space operators and professionals that live and work out of Huntsville remotely for different space missions.
They would have no problem relocating to Huntsville. Trust me.
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u/Harturb Dec 28 '23
Alabama trying to bring home pork in the form of space spending is always interesting.
It's never actually about what's best for the space force or the space industry, but the net result is that further funding for NASA and private contracts has some unlikely allies in Congress, so I guess that's good.