ИСТИНА

Planar motion of an orbiting body having a variable mass distribution in a central field of gravity is under analysis. Within the so-called "satellite approximation" planar attitude dynamics is reduced to the $3/2$-DOFs description by one ODE of second order. The law of the mass distribution variations causing an existence of the special relative equilibria, such that the body is oriented pointing to the attracting center by the same axis for any value of the orbit eccentricity is indicated. Development of chaoticity in vicinity of separatrices in combination with "isles of regularity" are investigated in dependence of a growing eccentricity both analytically and numerically. Important examples of a vibrating dumb-bell and of a dumb-bell equiped by a cabin wandering between its endpoints are considered. For the first case, in particular, special attention was paid to the dumb-bell length variation laws allowing an existence of rotations which are uniform with respect to a true anomaly. Stability of these rotations is investigated in linear approximation.