Jack of Harts

America built another elevator at Panama City to go along with the Canal down there. That was part of the arrangement that included Panama joining the United States and gave us an elevator fully under our control. The British Commonwealth built one in Australia as well, and the South Africans lifted one of their own into orbit. That gave us six total orbital elevators on Earth when the Peloran made Contact. Adding the Russian Polar Elevator and we currently have seven Earth elevator complexes, running every hour of every day of every year. We can move significant tonnage on and off Earth without ever lifting a single spaceship off the ground, and the elevators are far cheaper. They have made space travel safe and inexpensive.