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This happened to [[Explorer 1#Results|Explorer 1]], the first [[satellite]] launched by the [[United States]] in 1958. The elongated body of the spacecraft had been designed to spin about its long (least-[[inertia]]) axis but refused to do so, and instead started [[Precession|precessing]] due to energy [[dissipation]] from flexible structural elements.
In general, celestial bodies large or small would converge to a constant rotation around its axis of maximal moment of inertia. Whenever a celestial body is found in a complex rotational state, it is either due to a recent impact or tidal interaction, or is a fragment of a recently disrupted progenitor.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Efroimsky |first=Michael |date=2002-03 |title=Euler, Jacobi, and Missions to Comets and Asteroids |url=http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0112054 |journal=Advances in Space Research |volume=29 |issue=5 |pages=725–734 |doi=10.1016/S0273-1177(02)00017-0}}</ref>
== See also ==
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