For space-based optical surveillance systems, estimated ballistic parameters are important output specifications based on limited boost-phase measures. They are useful for target classification and threat assessment. To improve estimation accuracy under a single satellite, passive ranging based on the atmospheric absorption of oxygen “A” band is introduced in this study. The performance of passive ranging under different atmosphere models, weather scenes, and signal-to-noise ratio are discussed and simulated separately in moderate resolution atmospheric transmission. Furthermore, the performance of ballistic estimation based on passive ranging is compared with an experiential method. Simulation results show that the proposed method can effectively improve the accuracy of ballistic estimation.