New materials and structures have been continuously developed and applied in the aerospace field，and their unique properties such as lightweight，high strength，and heterogeneous composites，along with increasingly complex and high-precision structural designs，have imposed stricter requirements on the efficient and precise machining of aerospace components.Laser processing has been widely applied in the aerospace manufacturing field，owing to its advantages of non-contact operation，high precision，and high efficiency.In this paper，the principles of laser processing，typical applications，and current research status at home and abroad are investigated from four perspectives，i.e.，laser cutting，laser welding，laser drilling，and laser surface processing.The application scopes，advantages，and disadvantages of laser processing are compared with other machining technologies in the aerospace field，and the future development directions are proposed.