I think a hunk of metal traveling at the speed of the shuttle burning up in the atmosphere would generate a "spike" easily seen by any of the DSP assets in position to observe the event.
I remember the Challenger disaster, looking at the video, betting that the Libiyans were behind it. In reality, Space is the Final Frontier and it will be dangerous to conquer. Folks are going to try, and folks are going to die. I just hope that if as a species we die, we die trying!