Abstract: On-orbit geometric calibration of remote sensing satellites is essential to the geometric quality of its imagery. This paper reviews the current status and progress in optical satellite on-orbit geometric calibration technology, based on ground calibration site and space resection theory. The construction status of calibration sites and calibration results of SPOT, IKONOS, GeoEye, ZY-3 and other mainstream high-resolution optical satellites are summarized. problems existing in current calibration methods caused by dependence on reference images of a calibration site are analyzed considering improvements in the resolution of optical satellite imagery and timeliness requirements of on-orbit calibration, For the demand of camera calibration without the constraint of ground test site, the existing work in the field of computer vision and block adjustment are discussed. The merits and faults of each self-calibration method are compared, and a self-calibration method for optical satellites based on multiple-angle imaging is introduced, and several self-calibration modes are proposed.