To help optimize the spacecraft design and reduce the risk of spacecraft mission failure, a new approach to assess the survivability of spacecraft in orbit is presented here, including the following three steps:1) Sensitivity Analysis of spacecraft. A new sensitivity analysis method, a ray method based on virtual outer wall, is presented here. Using rays to simulate the debris cloud can effectively address the component shadowing issues. 2) Component Vulnerability analysis of spacecraft. A function“Component functional reduction degree — Component physical damage degree”is provided here to clearly describe the component functional reduction. 3) System-level Survivability Assessment of spacecraft. A new method based on expert knowledge reasoning, instead of traditional artificial failure tree method, is presented here to greatly improve the efficiency and accuracy of calculation.