A Chinese rocket fell back to Earth on 30 July over the Indian Ocean but the NASA said Beijing had not shared the “specific trajectory information” needed to know where possible debris might fall.
US Space Command said the Long March 5B rocket re-entered the Indian Ocean on 30 July.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that all spacefaring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk.
He said doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensuring the safety of people on Earth. Aerospace Corp, a government-funded nonprofit research center near Los Angeles, said it was reckless to allow the rocket’s entire main-core stage – which weighs 22.5 tons to return to Earth in uncontrolled reentry.