Abstract: Space-borne lidar could provide us with high accurate data of global detection and play more and more important role in earth observation. The development of space-borne lidars in USA and Europe was introduced in brief. Working principle, detection system and detection results of geoscience laser altimeter system spaceborne lidar, cloud-aerosol lidar with orthogonal polaritation and atmospheric laser Doppler spaceborne lidar wind measurement were summarized in detail. The construction and materials of the receiving telescopes of the above 3 spaceborne lidars were analyzed. The study provides some reference for the research of space-borne lidars in China.