Experiments on measuring the photometric characteristics of space targets were conducted based on Jilin-1 video satellites, the method of using video satellite to image space targets and perform luminosity inversion were demonstrated. The inversion and estimation on luminosity characteristics of targets was based on grey scale value of output images from camera sensor. An analysis on the effect from the error of radiation calibration coefficient and image noise on the inversion precision was also conducted based on the principle of error transfer. By using star targets as the standard radiation source, the inversion precision was verified. Results show the error of luminosity inversion is less than 0.15 magnitude. A statistics analysis on targets filmed by Jilin-1 satellites was performed and examples were listed, giving estimation on the maximum sensing distance, probability of target capture and the observation performance. Results show that the agile imaging mode of video satellite which is designed for ground remote sensing performs well in space target observation as well.