Spacecraft attitude control strategy for reducing disturbance torques

A control system for reducing disturbance torque of a spacecraft is disclosed. The spacecraft revolves around a celestial body surrounded by an atmosphere. The control system includes processors in electronic communication with one or more actuators and a memory. The memory stores data into a database and program code that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the control system to instruct the spacecraft to enter a safing mode. In response to entering the safing mode, the control system instructs the one or more actuators to align a principal axis of the spacecraft with a vector that is normal to the orbit around the celestial body. The control system also instructs the actuators to rotate the spacecraft about the principal axis, where a rotational orientation of the spacecraft relative to the celestial body is shifted by about one-half a rotation about the principal axis.