Patent ID: 7624948

Claim:
A method for configuring and operating a spacecraft in an orbit that is inclined with respect to Earth's equatorial plane, the spacecraft including at least a solar array, a receive antenna, a transmit antenna, and radiator panels, the method comprising the steps of: nominally orienting the yaw axis of the spacecraft, the roll axis of the spacecraft, and the radiator panels substantially parallel to Earth's equatorial plane, the pitch axis of the spacecraft and rotation axis of the solar array substantially parallel to Earth's polar axis, the Nadir vector in the yaw-pitch plane of the spacecraft, and the transmit antenna and receive antenna to angle φ nom ; and correcting the attitude of the receive antenna and the transmit antenna to maintain a desired degree of the receive antenna and the transmit antenna steered toward a coverage region on Earth's surface, the correcting step comprising the steps of: offsetting the attitude of the spacecraft by angle θ with respect to the pitch axis of the nominal orientation and by angle φ b with respect to the roll axis of the spacecraft; and offsetting the receive antenna and the transmit antenna at a roll angle φ a with respect to the spacecraft, wherein a roll rotation angle φ is a combination of the angle φ b and the roll angle φ a .