Dr John Stockton wrote:
JRS: In article , seen in
news:sci.space.policy, Ian Stirling posted at
Fri, 19 Sep 2003 14:29:25 :-

Low cost access to space isn't low cost access to LEO.
You can't jump off an elevator at 400Km, and be in orbit.
(well, you can, but it'll be a short orbit)
In order to clear the earth, you need to jump off at around half-way up
(rough BOTE).

Were you not here a couple of years ago?

Yes, however I may not have been reading every thread.

URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/gravity2.htm#Fall - for GSO radius
26300 miles, atmosphere top radius 4100 miles, answer is that, to miss
the atmosphere, one must fall from above 18700 miles radius.


18700 - 4000 (sic) : 26300 - 4000 = 13700 : 22300 :: ~ 61.5% up.
"around half-way up".

For an orbit that will aerobrake down into LEO, you'r probably looking
at a perigee of around 100Km, or around 80 miles lower, and that'll knock
a percent or few off.

--
http://inquisitor.i.am/ | | Ian Stirling.
---------------------------+-------------------------+--------------------------
He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers,
which were to be put in vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air
in raw inclement summers. -- Jonathan Swift, "Gulliver's Travels" (1726)