RECENT DAYS have made clear the folly(愚蠢；荒唐) of relying too much for your national security on a capricious(反复无常的) private citizen named Elon Musk. Mr Musk is said to have ordered the partial hobbling(阻碍；使跛行) of his satellite-internet service inside Ukraine. That had two malign(有害的；恶意的) effects. It hampered(妨碍；阻碍) Ukraine’s already limited ability to defend its cities and civilians from fast and deadly Russian drones. It also made it harder for Ukraine to strike back at(反击) Russia’s occupying forces.
最近几天的事态清楚表明，把国家安全过多地寄托在一个名叫埃隆·马斯克的反复无常的私人公民身上，是多么愚蠢。据说马斯克已下令部分限制其卫星互联网服务在乌克兰境内的运行。这带来了两个恶劣影响：一是削弱了乌克兰本已有限的防御能力，使其更难保护城市和平民免受俄罗斯快速而致命的无人机袭击；二是让乌克兰更难反击俄罗斯占领军。
If President Donald Trump objected to this egregious(极其恶劣的) favour to the Kremlin(克里姆林宫，代指俄罗斯政府), he kept quiet about(对……保持沉默) it. America’s allies, in Europe and elsewhere, may reasonably ask how much they can trust the superpower. If, in the future, they need space-based communications systems to defend themselves against attack, can they be absolutely certain that America will supply them unconditionally? The problem, alas, is that no adequate home-grown(本土的；国产的) alternative exists. Europe talks a good game(说得漂亮；光说不练) of trying to achieve “autonomy in space”. But that will take time and money, and also require Europe to cut the waste, infighting(内斗；内部纷争) and duplication(重复；冗余) that have weighed down(拖累；使不堪重负) its space efforts.
如果唐纳德·特朗普总统反对这一对克里姆林宫的惊人偏袒，他对此保持了沉默。欧洲及其他地区的美国盟友有理由问：他们能在多大程度上信任这个超级大国？如果未来他们需要天基通信系统来抵御攻击，他们能绝对确定美国会无条件提供吗？唉，问题在于，目前并不存在足够的本土替代方案。欧洲在口头上大谈要实现“太空自主”，但这需要时间和金钱，还需要欧洲削减浪费、内斗和重复建设——这些一直拖累着它的太空事业。
How to get there? First, Europe must have the launch capacity(发射能力) to put large numbers of satellites into orbit. In this, its record so far is poor. It can lift heavy payloads(有效载荷) into space on its Ariane rockets, but nowhere near as cheaply or efficiently as Mr Musk’s company does.
如何实现这一目标？首先，欧洲必须具备将大量卫星送入轨道的发射能力。在这方面，它迄今的记录很差。它可以用阿丽亚娜火箭将重型载荷送入太空，但成本和效率远不及马斯克的公司。