A kinematic scheme is presented which allows for planning attitude manoeuvres of satellites after actuator failure. The scheme relies on the identification of admissible rotation axes around which the control system can deliver torque components in spite of the failure Two techniques discussed ill the literature, based on a single rotation that either minimizes the angular displacement from a given target attitude or aims a sensor exactly along a prescribed direction, are compared with a new technique based on a two-step approach, which allows for achieving any prescribed attitude by means of a sequence of two feasible rotations Dynamic simulation is used for analysing potential capabilities and limits of the considered kinematic approaches to manoeuvre planning of under-actuated satellites. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved