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The Earth orbiting tether, is based in part on the elevator into space idea that was described by Arthur C. Clark in his book, The Fountains of Paradise. That particular space transportation concept consisted of hanging a cable from geostationary orbit down to the surface of the Earth and moving people and freight from the Earth into space on an elevator which would ascend and descend along the cable. The tether concept used in this transportation system is an intermediate version of that idea which can be built with existing materials. It works by starting from a much lower altitude orbit and hanging the tether down to just above the Earth's atmosphere. The length of the lower half of the tether is selected such that a suborbital shuttle, built using existing technology, can fly to the lower end of the tether without the need for any additional stages or drop-off external propellant tanks.