Patent ID: 7468695

Claim:
A global positioning system (GPS) attitude determination system, comprising: a platform having an unknown sight orientation in a reference coordinate system; a first GPS antenna structurally attached to said platform and configured to receive GPS data from multiple GPS transmitters; a second GPS antenna structurally detached from said platform and configured to receive GPS data from at least some of the same said GPS transmitters, said second GPS antenna positionable away from the platform to define an extended baseline to the first GPS antenna on said platform with an unknown orientation; an electro-optical (EO) sensor on one of said platform or said second GPS antenna configured to acquire an EO observable reference feature on the other of said platform or said second GPS antenna and measure a first baseline orientation relative to the sight orientation of the platform; communication means for communicating GPS data between the second GPS antenna and the platform; and processing means for processing GPS data from both the first and second GPS antennas to determine a second baseline orientation in the reference coordinate system and estimating the platform's sight orientation in the reference coordinate system from said first and second baseline orientations and a platform pitch.