This paper deals with an attitude control-system design technique for a spinning sounding rocket. A proportional, integral, and derivative (PID) type controller is developed for a dynamic model simplified by a complex summation method. The optimal PID gains at each design point are automatically obtained by using the co-evolutionary augmented Lagrangian method which can handle complicated specifications and constraints. The performance of the control system is verified through six degrees-of-freedom non-linear simulations, which shows that the optimized control system is robust against plant uncertainties and disturbances. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.