Aimed at the problem that maneuver detection delay causes the uncertainty of tracking maneuvering target, a combined detection method (χ² -β) was proposed for tracking maneuvering spacecraft with impulse power. By using Observation Innovation and α-βmaneuver dynamics model, the method detected the impulse maneuver to track maneuvering satellite. Through simulation and analysis, a comparison between the χ² detection method with β detection method was made. It proves that the sensitivity of χ² detection to maneuvering frontier correlate with the sampling points and motor threshold. The combined detection method does not incur much computation and,is superior to the traditional method, thus it has practicality in satellite engineering.