Abstract: The effect of jitter has to be considered for spacecraft with high pointing accuracy and resolution. The paper gives a definition of jitter, reviews the research progresses and the current state in this respect and analyzes its characteristics and the modeling method. Based on an analysis of jitter disturbance sources on-board, this paper focuses on problems of reaction wheel, Sterling cryocooler, space-borne sensor and solar wing stepping and thermal-induced vibration disturbance and discusses corresponding time or frequency domain models and the simulation for inputs to provide a reference for high resolution spacecraft design and performance evaluation from a system perspective.