A space launch system that could accommodate 1 percent of the world's population annually would have to carry 60 million people every year. But in theory every man, woman & child on earth might get at least one chance to ride into space in their lifetime. So let's review a theoretical model for such a system based on the Orbital Skyhook concept, functionally known as Airborne Rendezvous Momentum eXchange Electrodynamic Reboost (ARMXER) system ....

We start small, with goal of launching compact 1-tonne payloads using the Skyhook. This payload will require an orbiting Hub mass of about 1450 tonnes, to act as a momentum-exchange counterweight. The Hub must be launched piece-by-piece into orbit using heavy-lift rockets and assembled by astronauts flying their Orbital Space Plane (OSP). For this scale project it would require about 43 heavy-lift Energya M rockets at a total cost of about $5.8 billion (2002 dollars). Some of the 34-tonne Hub components would include a 2000-km long tether, reel & damping system, and rendezvous drone; an AC electron-recycling electrodynamic magsail; and a 340 megawatt microwave rectifier antenna. Component launch would take perhaps 7 - 10 years. Following manned assembly missions the Hub would be boosted to 2000-km orbit altitude using its closed-circuit magsail and 340 megawatts of microwave power beamed from several locations on the Earth's surface. The Hub would then start spinning, and once up to speed it would use centrifugal force to deploy its 2000 km-long tether, a nearly indestructible complex hollow cylinder 2-meters in diameter woven from carbon fiber composites. The fully extended tether would intersect Earth's atmosphere at various locations 47.3 times daily. A modified F-15 jet would carry 1-tonne payloads to an altitude of 35,000 - 80,000 ft, chase the rendezvous drone, and attach the package. This operation would be carried out continuously, around the clock, 17265 times per year. In the first two months of Skyhook operations, components for a second and third 1450-tonne Skyhook Hub would be launched, so that there would be two redundant systems if the first Hub were destroyed. The Skyhook could place payloads into any orbit up to 12,000 km altitude so that they wouldn't interfere with ongoing launch operations.

Construction of a Full-Scale Orbital Skyhook (FSOS) infrastructure would then begin. Due to limitations to energy availability on Earth it would be necessary to construct a constellation of orbiting Solar Power Satellites (SPS) or orbiting Fusion Powerplants (FP) to provide power to the FSOS, either via microwave beam, or via electron laser. The latter could be supplied with fusionable Helium-3 fuel mined from lunar soil. The smaller Skyhook could loft powerplant components up to 12,000-km altitude, 1-tonne-at-a-time, where their orbits could then be circularized or boosted higher if necessary. This constellation of scalable powerplants would provide from 13.5 - 270 gigawatts of electrical power to the FSOS when completed.

Like the first Skyhook the FSOS would also orbit at 2000-km altitude and initially use a single tether. It would have a modular design however, with hub-mass scalable from 60,000- to 240,000-tonnes; and from one to four tethers rotated 90 degrees from each other, like four arms of a starfish. The first 60,000-tonne Hub would be constructed from 1-tonne components launched using the smaller Skyhook. Component launch and assembly would take at least 3.5 years or more. Much of the full-scale version would be familiar, only larger, with an electrodynamic magsail for stationkeeping; a 2000-km long heavy-duty 40-tonne tether & drone, reel, and damping system; and a beam-power receiving antenna. The drone would be more sophisticated, perhaps able to perform complementary chase maneuvers, able to snatch larger payloads and refuel from a heavier, less maneuverable cargo aircraft.

The first FSOS could launch 40 tonnes to any orbit up to 12,000 km altitude, and do so 47.3 times daily, around the clock, 17265 times per year. At first it would be used to build extra capacity, up to five separate orbiting FSOS systems, used if the first FSOS is destroyed or for extra capacity when needed. It would also be used to scale up the existing constellation of powerplants, build orbiting greenhouses and cities, interplanetary spacecraft and bootstrapping missions, and even interstellar starships with fusion cores.

Passenger capacity would be immense. Each 40-tonne payload would actually be a fully-contained spacecraft, carrying construction materials or up to 180 passengers. These spacecraft would have low-thrust, high-efficiency rocket engines, able to reach an orbiting Hotels or fuel stores, de-orbit, or abort at any stage of the launch and safely re-enter the atmosphere. Permanent settlements in space would be necessary, with adequate evacuation capabilities, to maintain the orbiting powerplants, tracking systems, greenhouses, factories, and markets.

This space launch system could accommodate 1 percent of the world's population annually. In theory every man, woman & child on earth would get at least one chance to ride into space in their lifetime. And with millions of people flying into space, free enterprise is a possibility.