> Above GEO, the centrifugal force is stronger than gravity, causing objects attached to the cable there to pull upward on it. [...] On the cable below geostationary orbit, downward gravity would be greater than the upward centrifugal force, so the apparent gravity would pull objects attached to the cable downward.
So, without defensive countermeasures, the Space Elevator would indeed whip around the Earth.
But honestly, if I were designing such a thing, it would have break points, and maybe even a whinch at the base, to pull the line in. I'd also build it over water, and not over a population centre.
But I'm only a software engineer– it's likely a lot more challenging than this.
They’re not obviously wrong.
A lot of the cable is moving at escape and orbital velocities. Tensile strength is all that holds it together.
If, as the cable fails, you sever the parts above from below around escape velocity, you’ll significantly reduce the length of cable that will ever hit the surface.
Pure payload capsules with no passengers wouldn't need this.
The argument for space elevators is that there's a pretty strong limit on how much payload can be launched by rockets due to injection of water into the upper atmosphere. Starship could arguably reach this limit with plausible projected growth rates in traffic.
