The first instance of interservice rivalries in military space development occurred in 1946, when the United States Navy Bureau of Aeronautics Electronics Division proposed testing the feasibility of an artificial satellite, however it was unable to get Navy funding to attempt a launch, instead requesting a joint program with the War Department Aeronautical Board. General Carl Spaatz, commanding general of the Army Air Forces and later the first chief of staff of the Air Force and Major General Curtis LeMay, then Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development, denied the Navy's request, as their position was that military space was an extension of strategic air power and thus an Air Force mission. By 1948, the Navy had suspended its satellite program, focusing instead on rocketry. On 18 September 1947, the Army Air Forces gained their independence as the United States Air Force. While the Air Force still held claim that military space was its domain, the new service prioritized conventional strategic bombers and fighter aircraft over long-term ballistic missile and space development.
