Military
Military installations are among the major employers in Colorado Springs. These include the Air Force Academy, Cheyenne Mountain Air Station – home of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Peterson Air Force Base, Schreiver Air Force Base, Fort Carson, and Space Command.
Military contractors and the electronics industry have been a major presence in the city, at least since the late seventies, when the clean air drew their production processes here. They, of course, maintain “clean rooms” in order to protect their products from the tiny particles that can wreak havoc with tiny processors. However, there is less in the raw air to be filtered out than in most cities.