Abstract: In order to meet the needs of wide area search using agile satellite, the aerospace camera circular scanning imaging model was designed. Based on analyzing the principle of the circular scanning imaging, the optimal ground track was designed and the relationship between the critical spin speed of the satellite and the orbital velocity, the critical circular scanning coefficient, the overlap rate was analyzed, the circular scanning model was established. At the same time, the exposure time, frame rate and other imaging parameters were determined based on the ground track design. The imaging model by STK software was simulated, and the imaging geometric parameters were analyzed. The result shows that when the orbital height H is 500 km, the pixel size a is 4 m, the focal length f is 1 m and the axial pixel number M is 50 000, the ground sample distance and swath width increase gradually with the increase of the camera inclination , when equals to 10, 20, 30, 40, the swath width raises to 1.96, 3.10, 4.58, 6.85 times compared with nadir imaging.