Sodium guide star lasers have a great application in the adaptive optics systems. The characteristic parameters and technique difficulties of the lasers are analyzed. According to the generation methods, the sodium guide star lasers can be divided into three types: dye lasers, solid lasers and fiber lasers. The development history and the state of the art of them are expatiated. Dye lasers applied in engineering firstly have been washed out because of its big scale, low stability and dependability, and so on. Solid lasers include sum-frequency generation (SFG), stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and optical parameter amplifier (OPA). SFG lasers are used mostly and developed into macro-micro pulse lasers, continuous single frequency lasers and continuous mode-locked lasers by scientists for different requirements. The commercial SFG lasers with 50 W average power have been produced recently. The fiber sodium guide star lasers as a novel type have been developed rapidly in recent years. Especially, the continuous single frequency sodium guide star lasers based on the Raman fiber amplifier and the second harmonious generation have exceeded 50 W average power.