Abstract: When uncontrolled spacecraft, the last stage rocket and space debris reenter the Earth atmosphere, they may survive and impact the ground at an extremely high velocity, posing a great threat to human beings and natural ecosystems. Predicting the trajectories of the reentry objects in advance for taking necessary precautions can be an effective way to reduce the hazard. In this paper, we present an overview on the state of the art of the engineering methods for the prediction of the reentry of uncontrolled spacecraft and space debris, including the spacecraft geometric model, the dynamic model, the aerothermodynamic model, the ablation model and the breakup model, as well as engineering softwares available in open literature. Some key issues and future trends in this field are discussed.