Abstract: The reliability theory is introduced into space photogrammetry, and the reliability of satellite imaging quality is studied. The reliability of satellite imaging is defined as the ability of satellite imaging quality to meet the specified requirements under specified conditions and time. The reliability of satellite imaging quality is divided into four parts:Reliability design, testing, growth and maintenance. In this paper, the research status of imaging quality reliability of optical/SAR satellites is summarized. Various reliability measures are taken to improve the reliability of imaging quality when many commercial remote sensing satellites of other countries are in orbit. The reliability of imaging quality of optical satellite of Ziyuan-3 and SAR satellite of Yaogan 13A in China is preliminarily stu-died and analyzed. The result show that under 4 parts of reliability, Ziyuan-3 01 can have a geometric accuracy of less than 10 meters and 5 meters for Ziyuan-3 02. The research promotes China's remote sensing satellite reliability engineering from devices and components reliability to remote sensing satellite system reliability, which lay a foundation for our country satellite remote sensing system availabi-lity.