“For over a century scientists and sci-fi writers alike have dreamed of creating a space elevator to ferry astronauts and payloads between the Earth and low orbit,” Jason Daley of Smithsonian Magazine writes. Now, Japanese scientists will make a step toward such a futuristic development. Two satellites—roughly four cubic inches—will test elevator motion in space, as they launch with a 33-foot steel cable binding them, …
Japan’s Elevator From Earth to Low Orbit Space