Laser ignition has been an active research topic in recent years, and laser becomes an attractive future alternative ignition source to study the ignition characteristics of propellants because of its advantages of high and adjustable energy, the ignition time and energy being controllable, and the ignition process unlimited by the surroundings. In addition, the studies of ignition characteristics of propellants contribute to explaining the combustion theory and demonstrating the related model. The brief theory, the characterization and the apparatus of laser ignition of solid propellants at home and abroad were described. And the factors affecting the laser ignition of propellants such as the laser energy, the components and contents of propellants and the circumstances including pressure and temperature, were discussed. In the end, several problems on the evolvement of the laser ignition characteristics of the solid propellants were summarized and concluded with 50 references.