Determining the launching State for each of more than 19,000 objects in orbit currently being tracked is an extremely daunting task. The US military tackles this through a process of “cradle to grave” surveillance, meaning that they attempt to maintain an orbital history of an object from the moment it is launched to the moment it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere. It should be noted that this does not mean every object is continuously tracked all the time: the technique employed is one of periodic spot checks to determine an object’s position at various points.

Hmmm ... crunchy, but interesting. Horrifying pic at the top, too!