Write and let be the original circular orbital speed. An impulse leaves the orbital angular momentum unchanged if it is radial: its angular impulse is zero. The tangential velocity remains , and an added radial component gives
Thus kinetic energy increases even though angular momentum does not. For a Radial kick from a circular Kepler orbit, the new specific orbital energy and squared specific angular momentum are
The orbital eccentricity is , while the semi-latus rectum is . Hence
For the trajectory is a parabolic Kepler orbit and has no finite furthest radius; its periapsis is . For it is a hyperbolic orbit, with the same formula for but unbounded radius:
One must not use the negative denominator in the bound-orbit expression as a negative physical apocentre. On a departing unbound branch the conic's periapsis may already lie in the past; the future minimum from the kick event is then . These are ideal conic orbits; a periapsis inside a real planet would cause impact before the ideal continuation.
Figure 1.
Radial impulse, orbital turning radii and a launch-direction error
. Original dimensionless orbit calculations. Left: a radial kick changes energy while preserving tangential velocity and angular momentum. Middle: fixed-angular-momentum effective potential with bound, marginal and escaping energies. Right: a fixed-speed direction error gives an ellipse with the intended circular orbit's semimajor axis. Details.