Tractor beam? If someone could come up with one of those, that would work. No huge energy loss due to traveling into the atmosphere. No worries about refueling in orbit or potential collisions loss of life. Seems to me like that could be a thing.
Or how about a small propulsion system with a tether that can be carried to LEO with a weather balloon and then propelled further if needed. You'd just need like a 100 mile long wire cable to use with it. I'm sure that's doable, right? :)
