Collateral Risk, Episode 3: Sovereignty and Self-Sufficiency

Aug 13, 2026

Europe cannot build space resilience by trying to own every element itself. Sovereignty now depends on trusted access, interoperability, and a commercial ecosystem that can adapt as quickly as the threat environment. 

In Episode 3 of Collateral Risk, SSPI Executive Director Tamara Bond-Williams speaks with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Chiara Manfletti, CEO of Neuraspace and Professor at the Technical University of Munich, about sovereignty and self-sufficiency in a rapidly changing space sector. 

 

Manfletti explains why civilian and military space cannot be cleanly separated; why resilience depends on the entire chain from launch and ground systems to cloud services and data; and how Europe can combine public purpose with commercial speed and innovation. 

 

In this conversation: 

• Why the civil-military boundary is partly artificial in hardware but still matters in law and responsibility 

• Why protecting the satellite is insufficient when the attack surface is the full service ecosystem 

• How modular sovereignty can replace the goal of complete technological self-sufficiency 

• How government procurement can create market pull for resilient commercial services 

• How primes, startups, universities, agencies, and commercial operators can reinforce one another  

Collateral Risk is part of SSPI's Defense of Space campaign within the Better Satellite World initiative. 

 

Like this content? Subscribe to the SSPI Podcast