This paper presents a design method proposed to design an active disturbance rejection control for the antenna pointing control of a large flexible satellite system. A simplified dynamics model is established using Euler-Lagrange and used to analyze the dynamic stability of the antenna system. The capturing strategy of the antenna is configured and the inner and outer loops of the active disturbance rejection control are then designed to improve pointing accuracy and rotation speed. The design of the active disturbance rejection control is verified through numerical simulation. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method can be used to achieve high pointing accuracy and rotation speed. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.