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A method of controlling the attitude of a satellite in orbit around a celestial body. The attitude of the satellite being controlled by a momentum storage device and controllable surfaces of the satellite configured to create desaturation torques in the storage device by using solar pressure. The co

A method of controlling the attitude of a satellite in orbit around a celestial body. The attitude of the satellite being controlled by a momentum storage device and controllable surfaces of the satellite configured to create desaturation torques in the storage device by using solar pressure. The controllable surfaces are arranged on solar panels mobile in rotation around an axis Y. At least one electric thruster configured to control the orbit of the satellite also controls the attitude of the satellite. The orientation of the electric thruster is controlled to activate the electric thruster with a thrust direction deliberately not aligned with a center of mass of the satellite to create desaturation torques in the storage device along axis Y. The controllable surfaces are controlled to create desaturation torques of the storage device in a plane orthogonal to the Y axis.

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1. A method of controlling an attitude of a satellite in orbit around a celestial body, comprising the steps of: controlling the attitude of the satellite by: an angular momentum storage device;controllable surfaces of the satellite configured to generate torques Cs for de-saturating the storage dev

1. A method of controlling an attitude of a satellite in orbit around a celestial body, comprising the steps of: controlling the attitude of the satellite by: an angular momentum storage device;controllable surfaces of the satellite configured to generate torques Cs for de-saturating the storage device by utilizing solar pressure, the controllable surfaces being arranged on mobile solar panels that rotates around a Y axis; andat least one electric thruster that also controls the orbit of the satellite;controlling an orientation of said at least one electric thruster to activate said at least one electric thruster with a direction of thrust deliberately not aligned with a center of mass of the satellite to generate torques Cy for de-saturating the storage device exclusively along the Y axis; andcontrolling the controllable surfaces to generate torques Cs for de-saturating the storage device in a plane orthogonal to the Y axis. 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the steps of: commanding said at least one electric thruster to generate a torque CE having a component CY for de-saturating the storage device to compensate all or part of the angular momentum stored along the Y axis under an effect of disturbing torques;commanding the storage device to compensate the torque CE generated by said at least one electric thruster;commanding the controllable surfaces to generate a torque CS for de-saturating the storage device to compensate all or part of the angular momentum stored in the plane orthogonal to the Y axis under an effect of the torque CE generated by said at least one electric thruster; andcommanding the storage device to compensate the de-saturation torque CS generated by the controllable surfaces. 3. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising the step of bounding excursions of the angular momentum stored over time in the storage device between predefined values by the de-saturation torques CY and CS. 4. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising the step performing at least one of the following steps: simultaneously executing the step of commanding said at least one electric thruster and the step of commanding the storage device to compensate the torque CE generated by said at least one electric thruster; andsimultaneously executing the steps of commanding the controllable surfaces and the step of commanding the storage device to compensate the de-saturation torque CS generated by the controllable surfaces. 5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controllable surfaces comprise photosensitive surfaces of the solar panels; and further comprising the step of rotating the solar panels around the Y axis to generate the de-saturation torques CS. 6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controllable surfaces comprise surfaces of lateral flaps tied to the solar panels and inclined with respect to said solar panels; and further comprising the step of rotating the solar panels around the Y axis to generate the de-saturation torques CS. 7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controllable surfaces comprise surfaces with controllable optical properties; and further comprising the step of modifying the optical properties of the controllable surfaces to generate the de-saturation torques CS. 8. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of utilizing the controllable surfaces to compensate the angular momentum stored in the plane orthogonal to the Y axis under the effect of the torques CE generated by said at least one electric thruster. 9. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of activating said at least one electric thruster to control the orbit of said satellite simultaneously with each activation of said at least one electric thruster to generate torques CY for de-saturating the storage device along the Y axis. 10. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising the step of generating the de-saturation torques CY, CS exclusively by the controllable surfaces and by said at least one electric thruster, the de-saturation torques CY, CS being generated to permit modification of the angular momentum stored by the storage device. 11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the satellite is stationed in geostationary orbit; and further comprising the step of utilizing said at least one electric thruster to perform a North-South control of the orbit of the satellite. 12. A satellite for orbiting around a celestial body, comprising: a device for controlling an orbit of the satellite;a device for controlling an attitude of the satellite and comprising: an angular momentum storage device; anda de-saturating device for generating torques for de-saturating the storage device and comprising: controllable surfaces of the satellite configured to generate torques for de-saturating the storage device by utilizing solar pressure, the controllable surfaces being arranged on solar panels that rotates around a Y axis;at least one electric thruster of the device for controlling the orbit of the satellite; anda command module for controlling an orientation of said at least one electric thruster to activate said at least one electric thruster with a direction of thrust deliberately not aligned with a center of mass of the satellite to generate torques for de-saturating the storage device exclusively along the Y axis, and for controlling the controllable surfaces to generate torques for de-saturating the storage device in a plane orthogonal to the Y axis. 13. The satellite as claimed in claim 12, wherein the controllable surfaces comprise photosensitive surfaces of the solar panels of the satellite. 14. The satellite as claimed in claim 12, wherein the controllable surfaces comprise surfaces of lateral flaps tied to the solar panels of the satellite and inclined with respect to the solar panels. 15. The satellite as claimed in claim 12, wherein the controllable surfaces comprise surfaces with controllable optical properties. 16. The satellite as claimed in claim 12 wherein the de-saturating device comprises exclusively of the controllable surfaces and said at least one electric thruster.