A review of the current situation of international solar system exploration is given. It is concentrated on the presentations of scientific objective, significance, technique and achievement for the exploration of Moon, Mars, Minor planets and outer planets. A brief introduction to the spact projects of NASA, ESA, Russia and Japan in the recent years and early 21th century is also outlined. In the field of exuraterrestrial life search, the recent progress in the search for water and life in Mars,  SETI program znd its development, the controversy of the possibility of success of those projects among physicists and biologists, and the discoaery of extrasolar planets.
    The detection of extrasolar planets is one of the most impressive results in modern astronomy, and it will become one of the most remarkable research fields in the 81th century. At present, about 50 extrasolar planets have been discovered. The discovery of extrasolar planets is closely related to the search of extraterrestrial life. Great progress hcs been achieved in the past two decades. It has promoted the development of many other scientific fields, such as astronautics, cosmochemistry, astrobiology and even philosophy.