Abstract: As an important direction for the future development of star sensors, all-time star sensor technology can extend the application of star sensors to near space platforms such as stratospheric airships and high-altitude balloons. Due to the intense atmospheric background radiation during daytime, the detection capability of star sensors in visible band was significantly limited. The intensity of atmospheric background radiation in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) band was rapidly reduced compared to that in the visible detection band. Therefore, the application of SWIR imaging systems for star detection in the range of 0.9-1.7 m has become an effective solution for studying the all-time star sensor technology. In order to analyze and verify the feasibility of SWIR all-time star sensor, the all-time star sensor detection model was analyzed and the impact of SWIR detector noise on the detection capability was discussed in this paper. Then, the optical parameters of the all-time star sensor at a height of 20 km were determined through simulation calculation. The prototype of the all-time star sensor was developed based on SWIR detector. Combined with the star observation experiments at the ground, the detection performance of the prototype was tested and the correctness of the all-time sensor detection model was verified.