[notahacker]

Unless we're using it for humans the transit time isn't that big a deal; "last mile" orbital transfer times are often measured in days anyway.

That "last mile" bit is going to entail independent propulsion anyway. Getting to the altitude if the ISS is a mere 10 hour trip at a sedately 40kph which isn't unpleasant even for humans, but the ISS orbits at nearly 29000kph (as will you if you let go of the space elevator at that altitude) and the velocities are only half as scary at the far end, so your rendezvous anywhere other than one specific point in geo is going to be complicated. But you've saved the fuel costs of escaping the earth's atmosphere that's rather significantly more than the fuel costs of other bits of your satellite mission, including reentry. (At least until the costs of building and maintaining and protecting the elevator are factored in, but who knows what unobtanium costs?)

[gizmo686]

> as will you if you let go of the space elevator at that altitude)

Doesn't the teather have a constant (24 hour) rotational period at every elevation? That is significantly slower than the ISS

[notahacker]

fair point, you'd need to be orbiting at that speed to stay in that orbit, but you'd need propulsion to get the delta v to get there after letting go of the tether, but a lot less than to launch from ground level through the atmosphere. Or you could figure out the point higher up the tether to release where your orbital decay would intersect the IS orbits, but given the precision involved in that rendezvous you'd still want propulsion. You'd want propulsion for the last mile bit for pretty much anything other than building a station attached to the tether was kind of my whole point :)