The submillimetre-wave spectrum of C 3 O (X 1 Σ + ) has been investigated in the laboratory using a source-modulation microwave spectrometer equipped with a gas-phase flow pyrolysis system for the production of unstable chemical species. C 3 O was produced by thermal decomposition of fumaryl chloride at 900• C. Thirty-seven new rotational transitions were observed in the frequency range 307-740 GHz for the ground vibrational state, reaching a J quantum number as high as 76. Additionally, new millimetre-wave and submillimetre-wave lines were recorded for the bending fundamental v 5 = 1, and for its overtones v 5 = 2 and v 5 = 3 whose rotational spectra have been identified for the first time. The new laboratory measurements provide much improved rest frequencies in the submillimetre spectral region for the ground state spectra of C 3 O, and for the first levels of its low-energy v 5 vibrational ladder, useful for the radioastronomical identification of their rotational lines in the ISM.