I know the term a a maritime context to describe a type of movement a vessel can make. It also, not unsurprisingly, is used in other fields too (aeronautics, automobile).

1) NASA reference for a diagram : https://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rotations....

"To define the other principle axes, we pick some distinguishing characteristic of the design, like a fin placement, or a window location, and place the yaw axis perpendicular to the roll axis and through the center of gravity. On the figure, we have drawn a yellow line on the body of the rocket that lies in the plane formed by the roll and yaw axes. The yellow line passes through the fin on the "top" of the rocket. Motions about the yaw axis are called yaw motions and result in the nose of the rocket moving side to side. "


2) The GDT gives a brief clear description of the movement.

http://www.granddictionnaire.com/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=265...

lacet

Domaine
aéronautique > pilotage des aéronefs
Auteur
Logo identifiant une fiche rédigée par l’Office québécois de la langue française Office québécois de la langue française, 2014
Définition
Mouvement de rotation d'un aéronef autour de l'axe vertical passant par son centre de gravité.
Termes jugés adéquats pour désigner le concept à l’intérieur d’un domaine spécialisé, conformes au système linguistique du français ou acceptables en vertu des politiques officielles de l’Office
Terme privilégié
lacet n. m.
Anglais
Auteur
Logo identifiant une fiche rédigée par l’Office québécois de la langue française Office québécois de la langue française, 2014
Terme
yaw

Thus "yaw" describes a movement of rotation around a central axis, the movement in question passing through the centre of gravity. Yawing describes a type of rotation. Not easy to avoid redundancy in expressing the idea of "orientation" and "lacet". I find "orientation" more difficult to translate with "en lacet" than the term "lacet" alone!


For inspiration :
http://www.google.fr/patents/EP1659282B1?cl=en&hl=fr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaw_(rotation) (Even Wikipedia, tiens!)

Actually, I find the Wikipedia entry quite a useful soruce for ways of saying this succinctly, particularly avoiding redudancy. You don't need to translate the word "orientation" as "yaw" describes the type of orientation. There are other solutions and way of expressing this, but this is one suggestion which probably fits quite well in your context.