Abstract: The optical fiber communication, due to its advantages of large capacity, light weight and low loss, has become an important development trend for the spacecraft data transmission. It has been implemented in some satellite models of China. This paper firstly introduces the structure and the characteristics of the spacecraft optical cables, and then the main failure modes are summarized. The influence of various space environmental factors such as the high & low temperature, the temperature cycling, the radiation and their synergistic effects, on the reliability and life of the cables is reviewed. In addition, the acceleration testing method and the life acceleration model, as well as some typical application cases at home and abroad, are also presented, to provide a reference for the verification study of the spacecraft optical fiber cables in terms of reliability and service life for the aerospace engineering use.