This paper reviews the development of space-borne laser altimetry technology over the past 40 years. Taking the ICESAT satellite as an example, a rigorous space-borne laser altimeter geolocation model is studied, and an error propagation equation is derived. The influence of the main error sources, such as the platform positioning error, attitude measurement error, pointing angle measurement error and range measurement error, on the geolocation accuracy of the laser spot are analysed by simulated experiments. The reasons for the different influences on geolocation accuracy in different directions are discussed, and to satisfy the accuracy of the laser control point, a design index for each error source is put forward.