With the rapid development of the terahertz spectroscopy technique, it has shown great application prospect in the field of safety inspection, aerospace, life science and chemistry. In inspection field, most explosives and related compounds have characteristic absorption and many nonmetal and nonplority materials are transparent to terahertz wave, so it has shown significant potential for the safety inspection and acquired great attention at home and aboard. The abroad and domestic research status of the explosives detection using terahertz spectroscopy technique and the progress of terahertz spectroscopy technique was introduced. Then the the achievements of the solid and gaseous explosives characteristic absorption spectrum were concluded. Finally the existing technique difficulties were summed up and the future development trend was outlooked.