[donh]

Space navigators ususally have an intuitive understanding of orbits.

How many have been tested? Personally, I've been steeped in the math all my life, and I have the damnedest time feeling any intuitive sympathy for the notion that you have to slow down to go up, once you are in orbit. It sure doesn't apply when you're stuck on this mudball, so there's no obvious reason to have developed such an instinct.

[Moonman62]

It seems to me that that decreasing the tangential velocity alone would cause the orbit to decay. Isn't that how space shuttles deorbit? I would think that while the tangential velocity is decreased, force would need to be applied to increase the distance away from the center of the Earth at the same time.

[RightWhale]

Navigators learn to trust their instinct when it sets off alarm sirens. You will find, if your intuitive lobes are functional and you listen to them, that you must speed up to reach a higher orbit, not just once, but twice.