Ascending mining is one of the most effective ways to solve problems of water inrush, gas outburst and rock burst in coal seams mining. In order to reveal the law of motion and spatiotemporal relationship of overlaying strata, field measurement has been done in a mine. Long distance drillings were constructed from 4# coal seam to 6# coal seam at several certain typical positions, and movement and failure law of overlying strata after mining was analyzed by drilling video and observing the fluid leakage. Besides, we also analyzed the spatiotemporal development law of overlying strata failure with different mining heights and time intervals in the lower coal seam. The results show that: ascending mining is significantly affected by time-domain characteristics of overlaying strata failure after the lower coal seam’s mining, height equations of caving zone and fractured zone are given in this paper, and the feasibility of ascending mining was compartmentalized concretely according to the spatiotemporal relationship. Research methods and conclusions of this paper have certain referential significance for the study of ascending mining, mining under water, mining under building, mining under railway and stress-relief mining. Ascending mining is one of the most effective ways to solve problems of water inrush, gas outburst and rock burst in coal seams mining. In order to reveal the law of motion and spatiotemporal relationship of overlaying strata, field measurement has been done in a mine. Long distance drillings were constructed from 4 # coal seam to 6 # coal seam at several certain typical positions, and movement and failure law of overlying strata after mining was analyzed by drilling video and observing the fluid leakage. Besides, we also analyzed the spatiotemporal development law of overlying strata failure with different mining heights and time intervals in the lower coal seam. The results show that: ascending mining is significantly affected by time-domain characteristics of overlaying strata failure after the lower coal seam’s mining, height equations of caving zone and fractured zone are given in this paper, and the feasibility of ascending mining was compartmentalized concretely according to the s Research methods and conclusions of this paper have certain referential significance for the study of ascending mining, mining under water, mining under building, mining under railway and stress-relief mining.