Canada's First Awards for Light-Lift Rockets Go to Three Companies

The concrete result of Canada's rethink of its space dependence is modest in size. This spring, the government announced its first awards to three companies — NordSpace, Reaction Dynamics and Canada Rocket Company — to support work on rockets with light-lift capability. Ars Technica frames the shift as a product of political rupture: the Trump administration's tariff threats and tariffs, and the talk of making Canada the 51st state, prompted Ottawa to reassess a range of areas where it had been content to rely largely on the U.S. government and American companies. Sovereign access to space was one of them.