Alex-Frst

It's always more efficient to spend fuel at zero altitude and don't waste its potential energy leaving tons of the fuel somewhere at orbit. So, the correct answer is 2 - go up + suicide burn from hyperbola.

I'm not scared of powerful AI, I'm scared of the people who will control it.

You can try my calculator:

It's a simple calculator for launching to specific orbits without eyeballing orbit lines: https://alex-frst.github.io/KSPCalc/ I use it mostly for satellite contracts and rescue missions.