Details of the Chinese space rocket crash
A Chinese missile landed on the planet over the Indian Ocean, and the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that Beijing did not share information on the exact trajectory, which is the information needed to know where the potential debris might have fallen.
The US Space Command said the Long March 5B rocket re-entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean at around 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT), but it referred questions about "technical aspects of re-entry such as the potential landing site for debris scattering." to China.
"All space-faring 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-scattering hazards," said Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator.
"Doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensuring the safety of people here on Earth," he added.
Malaysian social media users posted a video of what appeared to be missile debris.
Aerospace, a US government-funded nonprofit think tank near Los Angeles, said it was irresponsible to allow the 22.5-tonne (about 48,500 lb) main stage of the rocket to return to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry.
Analysts have said in the past few days that the missile's body will disintegrate as it enters the atmosphere, but it is large enough that large parts of it will scatter debris over an area about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) and about 70 km wide.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.
China said earlier this week that it would track the wreckage closely but said it did not pose a significant risk to anyone on the ground.
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