Ghalam

Ghalam (Казахстанский спутник) is a Nur-Sultan (Astana), Kazakhstan-based satellite manufacturer founded in 2019 as a joint venture between Kazcosmos (the Kazakh national space agency) and Airbus Defence and Space, established to build Kazakhstan's indigenous satellite manufacturing capability. The company assembles and integrates small satellites at its facility in the Baiterek Cosmodrome area near the Baikonur Cosmodrome, taking advantage of Kazakhstan's unique position as home to the world's oldest and largest launch facility — giving domestic satellites direct access to Soyuz and Proton launch infrastructure without international export licensing delays. Ghalam's initial mandate was to produce Earth observation and telecommunications microsatellites for domestic government customers including the Ministry of Digital Development and KazMunayGas (the national oil company), which requires environmental monitoring of Kazakhstan's vast oil and gas infrastructure across 2.7 million square kilometers of territory. The Airbus partnership provides Ghalam with satellite design know-how, component supply chain access, and quality management systems while Kazakhstan provides launch access, government procurement, and the strategic interest in building sovereign industrial capacity for the space sector. Kazakhstan's space ambitions are part of a broader economic diversification strategy away from oil revenues, with space manufacturing and launch services seen as high-value industries to develop domestically. Ghalam competes in the emerging central Asian space market alongside Uzbekistan's nascent satellite program and benefits from Kazakhstan's long history as a space launch nation — the Baikonur site has hosted launches since 1955 and launched Sputnik-1 in 1957.