Here, you could just have a hook grab a perpendicular rope, but if you don’t have any contingency plans, well, “dock or die” isn’t very appealing. Especially if it happens multiple times.
If the thing you want to accelerate with the tether is cheap but heavy to LEO (e.g. “big dumb tank of fuel”), it might be a reasonable risk to take. Then missions which have more valuable payload like humans can take the safer approach of strapping them to a somewhat larger pile of explosions, and things which need a lot of delta V can get up to LEO with very little fuel left, dock with one of the big dumb tanks of fuel, and then refuel at that point.
Source: I have played a bunch of Kerbal Space Program, and if it works in KSP it will definitely work in real life with no complications.
If the thing you want to accelerate with the tether is cheap but heavy to LEO (e.g. “big dumb tank of fuel”), it might be a reasonable risk to take. Then missions which have more valuable payload like humans can take the safer approach of strapping them to a somewhat larger pile of explosions, and things which need a lot of delta V can get up to LEO with very little fuel left, dock with one of the big dumb tanks of fuel, and then refuel at that point.
Source: I have played a bunch of Kerbal Space Program, and if it works in KSP it will definitely work in real life with no complications.