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"The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer. Day after month after year after story after book."
- Harlan Ellison

Space Force  
  That branch of the military with a presence outside the atmosphere.  

As far as I know, the first use of this phrase in science fiction.

…I saw a distant spaceship rise up and wing away. Wandl was proceeding with the dispatching of her space navy to oppose the distantly gathering ships of Earth, Mars and Venus. No doubt with the wrecking of the control station the masters of Wandl immediately recognized the paramount importance of the coming battle in space, and promptly sent more space-forces off, despite the storm and the excitement which the wrecked station must have spread throughout the little world.
Technovelgy from Wandl, The Invader, by Ray Cummings.
Published by Astounding Stories in 1932
Additional resources -

As used in Hindsight by Jack Williamson:

Joining the dictator in his chartroom, Brek was puzzled. “Still I don’t see the reason for such a show of strength,” he said. “Why have you gathered three fourths of your space forces, to crush a handful of plotters?”

Perhaps a better usage can be found in Alfred Bester's 1950 story Devil's Invention:

On July 11th he was brevetted to command of the wrecked Space Force...

On September 19th he assumed supreme command in the Battle of the Parsec.

It is worth noting that Werner von Braun used the same expression:

The tasks of strategic bombing and global reconnaissance will have become a mission of the Space Forces, which by 2003 will have become a separate service on equal status with Army, Navy and Air Force.

President Trump announced the formation of the Space Force in 2018, so that's not a bad prediction.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Wandl, The Invader
  More Ideas and Technology by Ray Cummings
  Tech news articles related to Wandl, The Invader
  Tech news articles related to works by Ray Cummings

Articles related to Space Tech
Cislunar Space And The Space Lanes of Golden Age Fiction
NASA Moonbase Update
The Solar Oberth Slingshot
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'

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