creating a military space service occurred in 1958, and the idea was also being considered in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan. The 2001 Space Commission argued for the creation of a Space Corps between 2007 and 2011, and a bipartisan proposal in the U.S. Congress would have created a U.S. Space Corps in 2017. On 20 December 2019, the United States Space Force Act was signed into law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, reorganizing Air Force Space Command and other Air Force space elements into the United States Space Force, and creating the first new independent military service since the Army Air Forces were reorganized as the U.S. Air Force in 1947. Mission The United States Space Force Act codified the Space Force as organized, trained, and equipped to "provide freedom of operation for the United States in, from, and to space" and "provide prompt and sustained space operations," with its stated duties enumerated as to "protect the interests of the United States in space, deter aggression in, from, and to space, and conduct space operations." On 10 August 2020, the Space Force released its capstone doctrine, Spacepower: Doctrine for Space Forces, further expanding on its enumerated missions and duties. In Spacepower, the Space Force defines its three cornerstone responsibilities, which it articulates why spacepower is vital to U.S. prosperity and security, to provide freedom of action in the space domain, enable joint lethality and effectiveness, and provide independent options to U.S. national leadership capable of achieving national objectives. Spacepower establishes the Space Force's five core competencies: space security, combat power projection, space mobility and logistics, information mobility, and space domain awareness. Spacepower lists the seven spacepower disciplines required for the core competencies as orbital warfare, space electromagnetic warfare, space battle management, space access and sustainment, military intelligence, cyber operations, and engineering and acquisitions. History Air Force military space program (1945–2019) Following the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945, early military space development was begun within the United States Army Air Forces by General Henry H. Arnold, who identified space as a crucial military arena decades before the first spaceflight. Gaining its independence from the United States Army in 1947, the United States Air Force began development of military space and ballistic missile programs, while also competing with the Army and Navy for the space mission in 1949. In 1954, the Air Force created its