[roca]

I think that is a weak counter-example. The applications of rocketry and satellites were obvious by the end of WW2. In 1945 Arthur C. Clarke had already published an article explaining how useful it would be to have communication satellites in geostationary orbit, and it didn't take much imagination to suppose that a big enough rocket could put them there.

[OnlineGladiator]

It's easy to think of it as a possibility, but the amount of effort to put a satellite into space is still extraordinary (space travel is still far from a commodity all these decades later). My point was they would not go through the trouble of first creating satellites as it would be considered too exotic of an idea. It would be like thinking of Uber 15 years ago before smartphones were ubiquitous, and deciding you first need to invent the smartphone rather than shelve the idea.