Multiple impulsive spacecraft formation reconfiguration under J2 perturbation is studied, and the fuel-optimal strategy is developed based on nonsingular Gauss Variation Equation and mean orbital element propagation under J2 perturbation. Firstly, a linear relative dynamics equation using the nonsingular orbital element differences dynamics model is derived, which considers the J2 perturbation and the coupling effects between in-plane and out-of-plane relative motion. Thus, the formation reconfiguration problem can be described as a Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming mathematical problem. Then, the hybrid approach of Differential Evolution algorithm and Sequence Quadratic Programming is proposed to optimize the total velocity increment. Finally, the efficient of the optimization result is proved with the Primer Vector Theory considering J2 perturbation, and the influence of transfer time and the reference orbital eccentricity on the total velocity increment is analyzed. The simulation results show that the hybrid approach is effective, and can obtain the feasible solution efficiently for both circular and elliptic reference orbit. © 2018 KASHYAP.