[gvb]

Excellent question, fascinating answer: http://www.orbitermars.co.uk/stdorbit.htm

Trivia: this was the first spot googling "energy cost change orbital plane". I almost didn't click the link "Standard Orbit, Mr Sulu!" but was very glad I did. Bing had Wikipedia as the first spot, not nearly as engaging.

[yread]

I highly recommend the simulator Orbiter. Getting the space shuttle to LEO with this level of realism is hard