一两年前，几家加拿大发射公司曾尝试开发小型火箭，但坦白讲，该行业当时并不引人注目。当然，未来可能会发生一些有趣的事情，但除了少数加拿大的太空极客之外，没有多少人给予关注。
A year or two ago, a few Canadian launch companies were trying to develop small rockets, but if we're being frank, the industry was not particularly notable. Sure, something interesting might eventually happen, but no one outside of a few Canadian space geeks was paying much attention.
然而随后，特朗普政府开始威胁并实施关税，甚至出现了让加拿大成为美国第51个州的言论。几乎我认识的所有中国（应为加拿大，原文如此）人都开始向我倾诉他们对南部门户的愤怒。怪不得他们会有这种情绪。
But then the Trump Administration started threatening and instituting tariffs. There was talk of making Canada the 51st state. And pretty much every Canadian I know began telling me how enraged they were at their neighbors to the south. It's hard to blame them.
这促使加拿大政府重新评估了许多领域，在这些领域中，加拿大以前很乐意主要依靠美国政府和美国公司来提供货物和服务，其中包括对太空的主权准入。因此，今年春天，加拿大政府宣布了对三家公司（NordSpace、Reaction Dynamics和Canada Rocket Company）的首批资助，以支持“轻型运载”能力火箭的研发。
This has led the Canadian government to reassess all manner of areas where it had previously been happy to rely largely on the US government and American companies for goods and services. This included sovereign access to space. So this spring, the government announced the first awards to three companies—NordSpace, Reaction Dynamics, and Canada Rocket Company—to support work on rockets with "light lift" capability.