The increasing complexity and articulation of modern aerospace sector lead to the necessity towards more advanced and robust control strategies in satellite attitude regulation. Satellites equipped with flexible appendages, such as solar panels or antennas, enlighten additional challenges due to the coupled rigid-flexible dynamics that bring out unwanted vibrations and performance degradation. Moreover, real actuators (such as Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs) and/or Reaction Control Systems thrusters) inherently bring in the closed loop system certain dynamics, making it crucial a design strategy that can effectively cope with bandwidth limitations, saturation and other nonlinearities. In this context, sliding mode control emerges as a promising nonlinear alternative thanks to its intrinsic robustness against uncertainties and external disturbances.