对卫星激光通信近10年来的发展状况进行综合阐述，重点介绍了卫星激光通信的在轨实验现状和未来发展趋势。通过对已经取得成功的在轨激光通信实验进行综合分析，指出当前卫星之间的激光通信已发展到接近成熟的第二代，即将进入推广应用阶段。定性分析了大气对上下行激光链路影响的差异，指出上行激光链路稳定性差的原因，明确今后星地激光通信的发展方向是自适应光学天线与多光束通信的结合。总结出卫星光网络演化进程，介绍了对卫星光网络体系结构的研究成果。分析指出卫星光网络在经历近10年低谷期之后，伴随着第二代卫星激光通信终端的成熟，已经初步具备了硬件基础。系统介绍一种中低轨卫星联合构建的双层卫星光网络的结构和网络性能，进而指出其扩展应用，为我国在空间光网络领域的发展提供思路和参考。

Status of space optical communication over the past decade has been summarized. The successful in-orbits experiments are depicted with the developing trends of future space optical communications. According to the analysis on the state-of-the-art technologies, the inter-satellite laser communication is maturing on its second generation, which will transfer from scientific test into extended applications. The different impact of atmosphere turbulence on the down-links and the up-links is analyzed respectively, which demands for the adaptive optics and multi-beam transmitting to cope with the scintillations in the ground-to-satellite links. The outlooks were provided on the architectures of satellite optical networks from the research in recent years. It is pointed out that after the 10 years′ downturn, satellite optical networks will meet a booming period with the maturing of the second generation of inter-satellites laser communication. The hardware and experimental foundations are shaped up. A method on the double layered satellite optical networking is presented, which will be a designation reference on the constructing of future space optical networks.