An adaptive sliding mode controller is proposed for satellites three-axes-stabilized in inertial frame based on
its nonlinear and coupled attitude model. Considering that the accurate inertial parameters of satellites are very difficult to
determine and satellites on-board always suffer from some external disturbance torque, the bound of disturbance torque and
inertial parameters are estimated by utilizing adaptive sliding mode control theory. The closed-system with the proposed
controller is uniformly and ultimately bounded stable, which is proved by using Lyapunov theory. The results of simulation
show the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed controller.