Status of space optical communication over the past decade has been summarized. The successful in-orbits experiments are depicted with the developing trends of future space optical communications. According to the analysis on the state-of-the-art technologies, the inter-satellite laser communication is maturing on its second generation, which will transfer from scientific test into extended applications. The different impact of atmosphere turbulence on the down-links and the up-links is analyzed respectively, which demands for the adaptive optics and multi-beam transmitting to cope with the scintillations in the ground-to-satellite links. The outlooks were provided on the architectures of satellite optical networks from the research in recent years. It is pointed out that after the 10 years′ downturn, satellite optical networks will meet a booming period with the maturing of the second generation of inter-satellites laser communication. The hardware and experimental foundations are shaped up. A method on the double layered satellite optical networking is presented, which will be a designation reference on the constructing of future space optical networks.