Abstract: A robust model and an improved differential evolution (DE) algorithm are proposed for agile imaging satellite proactive scheduling considering satellite resource failure and emergency task insertion. Firstly, with consideration of satellite resource failure probability and primary-backup time windows of tasks, two robust indicators are proposed: expected rewards and slack time, and a robust model of proactive scheduling is established. Secondly, to solve the multi-objective model, mutation, crossover, and selection operators are redesigned, an external archive update strategy is adopted, moreover, Pareto set evaluation indicators are improved, based on which, a multiobjective discrete differential evolution (MDDE) algorithm is proposed. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that MDDE has increased by 10.42% above NSGA-Ⅱ on the Pareto set evaluation indicators, and decreased by 9.72% on average CPU time, the study can provide support for proactive scheduling of agile imaging satellites.