A spacecraft including control vanes for controlling the pointing direction of the spacecraft by providing a variable absorptive, reflective, emissive and/or transmissive properties. The control vanes provide a torque on the spacecraft to maintain the spacecraft pointing towards the sun. The control vanes can include at least one x.sub.b-axis control vane and at least one y.sub.b-axis control vane where the x.sub.b axis control vane provides x.sub.b-axis control torque on the spacecraft rotated about the x.sub.b-axis, and the y.sub.b-axis control vane provides y.sub.b-axis control torque on the spacecraft when rotated about the y.sub.b-axis.