Off the top of my head:
Providing laser power from the ground station
Giant rail gun
Launch fountain
Launch loop
Space elevator
Sky hook
This spin machine
A giant torus that floats near the edge of the atmosphere. Spin it for more lift, stability, and to throw things.
;)
It refined pure metals and then blew gas through them (think of a Carbury's wispa), these where then dropped into the pacific and floated until a ship retrieved them.
The idea seemed neat though the line from "We are going to drop a 1000 tonnes of metal into the pacific and that of we are going to drop a 1000 tonnes of metal onto your house" seemed a thin one.
It's hard to defend from the bottom of a gravity well against someone at the top of one.