Summary: Using the atmospheric plane change of the low orbits, we propose a simplified method to determine the total impulse (total velocity requirement). The method is applicable to circular orbits. By total impulse is meant the descent impulse from the initial orbit \(\Delta V_1\), the compensation impulse \(\Delta V_2\) (along the atmospheric segment of the trajectory), and the recirculation impulse \(\Delta V_3\) (to the rotated orbit). To minimize the compensation impulse which is dominant in the total impulse, is to maximize the terminal velocity. In this paper an analytical solution for the maximum terminal velocity is established in two distinct ways. The method can be considered as optimal because of the insignificant differences obtained in the total impulse evaluation by comparison to the results supplied by the variational maximum principle, while the computational time is significantly reduced.