The experiment was built under contract to the NASA Glenn Research Center by the Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, Texas. About half of all scientific and commercial spacecraft spin during all or some part of their mission.
Many spacecraft spin continuously in orbit for the same reason.
These oscillations cause stability and control problems for the spacecraft. The oscillations also limit the on-orbit life of the craft due to energy dissipation. At this time, the liquid's energy dissipation cannot be quantified adequately by any ground test. Current analytical models are inadequate because the fundamental fluid motion data needed to improve and validate them is nonexistent. Consequently, spacecraft attitude control systems are designed and operated very conservatively, but nonetheless, spacecraft often still perform poorly in orbit.