Inter-satellite information interaction is the basis of satellite formation attitude coordination control. To reduce the amount of inter-satellite interaction information and meet the constraints of resource and communication bandwidth limitation, an event-triggered relative attitude distributed adaptive control algorithm is proposed based on the Euler-Lagrange attitude dynamics model of satellite formation. Event-triggered function is designed by utilizing inter-satellite state deviation and associative matrix, etc. Event is triggered and data is updated when function value satisfies the condition, and control algorithm is designed by utilizing information of event time during non-event time, thus the satellite formation attitude consensus coordination control is transformed into an event-triggered control problem. Update frequency of control input and the amount of inter-satellite interaction information are reduced effectively. Leader-follower satellite formation system using proposed control algorithm is proved to be globally asymptotic stable based on the Lyapunov theory. Event-triggered time sequence will not produce Zeno behavior, i.e. a lower bound exists during inter-event time. Numerical simulations were performed to verify the effectiveness of event-triggered adaptive control algorithm, which was in turn compared with a conventional one. Simulation results show that the proposed control algorithm significantly reduces update frequency of control input and the amount of inter-satellite interaction information, meet the constraints of energy on board and inter-satellite communication ability, and ensures control performance of closed loop system at the same time.