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Currently, responses to uncontrolled reentries are hampered by an inability to reliably track spacecraft once they are burning up within the atmosphere, meaning that debris fallout locations are poorly predicted. We have demonstrated a minimum-gradient fit seismic inversion methodology that allows in-atmosphere debris trajectory, speed, altitude, descent angle, size, and fragmentation pattern to be discerned relatively quickly. We tested this methodology on open-source data from the 2024 reentry of Shenzhou-15, deriving a location significantly south of the predicted track. Observations of cascading, multiplicative fragmentation offer insight into debris disintegration dynamics, with clear implications for space situational awareness and debris hazard mitigation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1126\/science.adz4676","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]],"date-time":"2026-01-22T19:00:48Z","timestamp":1769108448000},"page":"412-416","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.34133\/aaas_crossmark","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Reentry and disintegration dynamics of space debris tracked using seismic data"],"prefix":"10.1126","volume":"391","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7321-8401","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Benjamin","family":"Fernando","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9139-3895","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Constantinos","family":"Charalambous","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"221","reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_2_2_2","unstructured":"ESA Space Debris Office \u201cESA\u2019s annual space environment report \u201d technical report (ESA 2024)."},{"key":"e_1_3_2_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2313374120"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asr.2023.05.011"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s00159-006-0003-9"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_6_2","first-page":"128","article-title":"Detecting, tracking and imaging space debris","volume":"109","author":"Mehrholz D.","year":"2002","unstructured":"D. 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