The minimal controller synthesis (MCS) is an extension of the hyperstable model reference adaptive control algorithm. The aim of minimal controller synthesis is to achieve excellent closed-loop control despite the presence of plant parameter variations, external disturbances, dynamic coupling within the plant and plant nonlinearities. The minimal controller synthesis algorithm was successfully applied to the problem of decentralized adaptive schemes. The decentralized minimal controller synthesis adaptive control strategy for controlling the attitude of a rigid body satellite is adopted in this paper. A model reference adaptive control strategy which uses one single three-axis slew is proposed for the purpose of controlling the attitude of a rigid body satellite. The simulation results are excellent and show that the controlled system is robust against disturbances.