Attitude acquisition method and spacecraft attitude acquisition and control system

Attitude acquisition methods and systems are provided which reduce the time generally required to acquire spacecraft attitude estimates (76) and enhance the probability of realizing such estimates (76). The methods and systems receive, over a time span t, successive frames of star-sensor signals (70) that correspond to successive stellar fields-of-view (102A-102N), estimate spacecraft rotation r throughout at least a portion of the time span t, and, in response to the spacecraft rotation r, process the star-sensor signals (70) into a processed set of star-sensor signals that denote star positions across an expanded field-of-view (120) that exceeds any of the successive fields-of-view (102A-102N). The expanded field-of-view (120) facilitates identification of the stars (104,105,106,108,110,112,114) that generated the processed set of star-sensor signals to thereby acquire an initial attitude estimate (72).