Abstract: The rain attenuation statistics are key parameters for the proper planning and evaluating of earth-space radio systems such as satellite communication systems. The key factors affecting the accuracy of the rain attenuation prediction model on slant path are analyzed herein, which include rain drop size distribution(DSD), rain height, the non-uniformity of rain rate in horizontal and vertical direction, etc. Meanwhile, the dependencies of main rain attenuation models on elevation and frequency are compared and analyzed, and the limitations of the existing models and the approaches of improving the models potentially are discussed. Through the investigation of the above comparison, an opinion is put forward that the tendency of rain attenuation statistics modeling on earth-space path is to the path-specific model.