Hudson: We're on an express elevator to hell; going down! (Aliens)
Fascinating idea, but the issues with space junk, meteorites, atmospheric weather, engineering etc etc are surely going to take a LOT to overcome.
Better idea - can we make a "dew shield" for a telescope so large as to pierce the atmosphere completely and see as the Hubble does? Same principle...only issue would be the terminal diameter so as not to vignette (and taper all the way back to the objective). Or, make an ULTRA LONG focal length scope
Sadly, it seems something like this may end up being the fantasy it currently is. We were "promised" to land man on Mars when I was a teenager. I am middle aged now and all we have still is essentially billion dollar remote control buggies there. I hope we at least put man/woman on Mars before I float through the universe in an aethereal way