It&#x27;s <i>not</i> the case with a rocket, unless you&#x27;re flying forward with a liquid propellant rocket and the fuel tanks are almost empty so that the center of mass is significantly behind the center of drag (and the atmosphere is appreciable). <i>That</i> is an inverted pendulum situation.<p>Outside of atmosphere and&#x2F;or at low velocities, there&#x27;s no instability of this kind, and &quot;flying backwards&quot; (=landing) makes the rocket actually auto-stable (like with a dart), even if the time constants may not necessarily be meaningful for useful control here.