Can't/won't happen. [b]Problem #1: Survivability[/b] Let's say you could somehow make a metal pod that will encase a single soldier and allow them to survive entry into the atmosphere from orbit. The crash will kill the soldier. Springs or cushions or whatnot won't matter if you decelerate too fast. If you're traveling 70 mph in a car and suddenly slam into a brick wall, but your seatbelt and airbags deploy and the car doesn't blow up, you'll still die; your internal organs will sever and break apart from the sudden decrease in speed. [b]Problem #2: Cost[/b] This is so expensive it's insane. It cost about $10,000 to send one pound of stuff into space back when the space shuttles were still in use. That's a lot of money to spend sending even just one soldier up into space with all the fancy equipment to protect him/her on re-entry and once they're actually in combat. And a lot of the equipment in use is going to be one-time use. Expendable. And all this just to deploy one soldier into one location? The cost of food to feed that soldier while they're waiting up in space for the call to drop alone is going to be outrageous! And they WILL be sitting up there for a long time, because the whole point of this stuff is rapid deployment and response. [b]Problem #3: Feasibility[/b] What is the point of this? As other posters already said, we already have paratroopers... this is the same concept but in space. Why do the soldiers have to be as high up as space when they drop? They don't. And if you had a platform in space that could drop things onto any location at any time, wouldn't it be better to just drop a hunk of uranium onto your intended target and have it hit with the force of an atomic bomb, instead of dropping a person with a gun who's going to supposedly shoot at things with bullets IF they survive that long!? The whole idea is nuts. People who vote yes here should be ashamed of themselves.