Drawing on public and declassified documents, my research tracks the construction of the “Chinese Space Threat” in US policy discourses from 1958 to the present. I particularly focus on China’s so-called “rise in space,” a concept used by American observers to contextualise events since 2000. This has included the launch of China’s first person into space and the demonstration of a series of technologies with the potential to be used as “space weapons.” Using a theoretical approach which combines insights from Critical Security and Science and Technology Studies, my project explores the technopolitics which constitute the official US response to China’s “new” technical capabilities.