Abstract: This paper first introduces the technical requirements for autonomous flight, with a brief review of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) study group, “autonomous dynamic trajectory optimization control of launch vehicle”. Two research scenarios, ascent rescue and powered descent, are compared from the viewpoint of optimal control. On this basis, the technologies on the autonomous trajectory planning and control under the thrust-drop failures in the ascending phase, and the autonomous guidance method during the powered landing for the recovery of the rockets are discussed respectively. For the ascending problem, the characteristics of different solutions, including the iterative guidance method (IGM)-based residual carrying capacity evaluation, the state-triggered indices (STI), the joint planning with the payload’s performance, and the multiple graded ptimization (MGO), are analyzed for comparison. For the landing problem, the challenges such as the feasible region reduction caused by high thrust weight ratio (HTWR) and the disturbance adaptability brought by the limited feasible region, are studied in detail, as well as the onboard planning demonstration flight in China are introduced. Finally, the foundations supporting the above methods are summarized, which play an important role in promoting the flight autonomy.