diff --git a/newsfragments/167.fixed.rst b/newsfragments/167.fixed.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..738fc40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/167.fixed.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fixed a :class:`ReferenceError` when chaining a request off a temporary client, e.g. ``SpaceTrackClient(...).basicspacedata.gp(...)``.
diff --git a/src/spacetrack/base.py b/src/spacetrack/base.py
index 0106ec9..ab1589b 100644
--- a/src/spacetrack/base.py
+++ b/src/spacetrack/base.py
@@ -1090,9 +1090,7 @@ class _ControllerProxy:
     """Proxies request class methods with a preset request controller."""
 
     def __init__(self, client, controller):
-        # The client will cache _ControllerProxy instances, so only store
-        # a weak reference to it.
-        self.client = weakref.proxy(client)
+        self.client = client
         self.controller = controller
 
     def __getattr__(self, attr):
diff --git a/tests/test_spacetrack.py b/tests/test_spacetrack.py
index a0c9bfa..fffb8c8 100644
--- a/tests/test_spacetrack.py
+++ b/tests/test_spacetrack.py
@@ -368,6 +368,16 @@ def test_controller_spacetrack_methods(client):
                 assert mock_generic_request.call_args == expected
 
 
+def test_controller_proxy_keeps_client_alive(httpx2_mock):
+    # A _ControllerProxy used to hold only a weak reference, so using a
+    # proxy after the client's last strong reference was dropped raised
+    # ReferenceError.
+    with patch.object(SpaceTrackClient, "generic_request") as mock_generic_request:
+        SpaceTrackClient("identity", "password").basicspacedata.gp()
+
+    mock_generic_request.assert_called_once()
+
+
 def test_authenticate(httpx2_mock):
     def request_callback(request):
         if b"wrongpassword" in request.content: