[dogscoff]

Anyone ever read a scifi book called "The Descent of Anansi" (or something like that)? Can't remember the author. It was pretty good anyway. It wasn't exactly about space elevators but at the end of the book they've got these two damaged spacecrafrt joined by miles and miles of ultra strong cable, and they use the difference in orbital speeds at different heights to come safely down into the atmosphere. Same principle that keeps the proposed elevator up, I think.