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Put the comm sats into a nice, highly elliptical orbit with their engines, lower apoapse the (hopefully small) required amount, and raise periapse out of atmosphere.
MRO did it the other way around. Capture into a elliptical orbit, and then lower the periapsis to circularize orbit over a longer period.
But you'll still need enough DV in your budget to get into the elliptical orbit. If you plan to skim the atmosphere during insertion, you
WILL need a heat shield.