The US defense department officials chided Beijing for not sharing information on the potentially hazardous object that returned to Earth on Saturday.
The Long March 5B rocket reentered the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian ocean on Saturday, but the US Space Command referred any questions about debris dispersal to China.
Wentian, the second module of China's new space station, was launched from the Long March 5B rocket on Sunday.
The failure to share the details of the rocket's descent was irresponsible and risky.
Will China clean up its act when more junk falls to Earth?
Nelson said that all spacefaring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance.
It's important to ensure the safety of people here on Earth by doing so.
The main-core stage of the rocket should not be allowed to return to Earth in an unguided re-entry, according to a government funded research centre.
In the past week, analysts said the rocket body would fall through the atmosphere but be large enough to survive a fiery re-entry to rain debris over an area of about 2,000 km.
The Chinese embassy in Washington didn't say anything. China said it would keep a close eye on the debris, but that it posed no risk to anyone.
There were no injuries when pieces of a Chinese Long March 5B fell on the Ivoir Coast in 2020.
In order to avoid large, uncontrollable re-entries, the US and most other space-faring nations go to the added expense of designing their rockets.
The Tiangong space station is one of the jewels of Beijing's ambitious space program, which has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon.
China has poured billions of dollars into space flight and exploration in order to reflect its stature as a rising global power.
It has Agence France-Presse and the news agency.
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