A general procedure for the design and analysis of three-axis, large-angle attitude control systems has been developed. Properties of three-dimensional rotations are used to formulate a model of such systems. The model is general in that it is based on those properties which are common to all attitude control systems, rather than on special properties of particular components. Numerical values are assigned to attitude error by means of error functions. These functions are used to construct asymptotically stable control laws. The overall (global) behavior of the system is characterized by the envelope of all time histories of attitude error generated by every possible combination of initial condition, target attitude motion, and disturbance. A method for computing upper bounds on the response envelope is presented. Applications of this method indicate that it provides a useful alternative to Liapunov analysis for the determination of system stability, responsiveness, and sensitivity to disturbances, parameter variations, and target attitude motion.