Meet Arvinder ‘Arvi' Bahal, Agra-born man to fly to edge of space today on Blue Origin NS-34 mission
Bahal's Sunday liftoff will be yet another chapter in his remarkable life of adventure and exploration.
A naturalised US citizen and hitting the age of 80, he has travelled to all the countries on our planet — seven continents, 196 countries, says his website chronicling some of his travels.
He has been to both the North and South Poles, skydived above Mount Everest, and visiting the Pyramids of Giza. He has a private pilot licence too.
Professionally, his LinkedIn profile shows, he is the president of a US-based real estate company, Bahal Properties.
Devout Sikh, almost got into army, how Arvi came to US
Born on October 13, 1945, in Agra, Bahal grew up near the iconic Taj Mahal, his website says. He is described as a devout Sikh in his brief profile on the site.
After the NDA exit, he spent nearly four years working on a Scottish-owned tea plantation in Darjeeling before entering the garment-manufacturing business near Delhi by 1970, it says.
'I came to America in 1975 to sell my wares… I liked it here, asked for immigration," he told United Planet radio. His website says he came to the US 'with just $108' and got citizenship by the end of the 1970s. In 1979, he married Pamela, and they have two children: Sukhvinder, a fintech professional, and Tasha, a lawyer; and grandchildren.
How Arvi Bahal got into real estate
In the course of his travels for work at the time, he went to Canada, where he bought his first property. 'I saw the returns looked good… since then I have been in real estate which gives me time to travel,' he further said in that 2017 interaction with the online radio channel.
Of his travels, India, where he was born, and China were his favourites, he said.
A resident of Beverly, Massachusetts, he claims to have an archive of over a million images as a photographer. He has also written about his travels in at least one publication, titled The Tireless Traveler, which is also the title of his website.
Travels, and fascination with space
His Facebook account has the most recent post from July, which includes photos from a trip to historical places in Afghanistan.
An Instagram account in his name shows he visited Sikh shrines in Pakistan — including Gurdwara Panja Sahib linked with Guru Nanak Dev — last year. Another post carries videos of the Sagsai Eagle Festival held in Mongolia.
He was exploring opportunities to travel towards space at least a decade ago too, interviews and articles online show. He reportedly placed his deposit with the space tourism company called Virgin Galactic, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson; and was 'Future Astronaut No. 326' at one time.
That company shut down in 2023.
His space dream, however, remained alive. As far back as 2012, his Instagram has a post showing a rocket takeoff.
Arvi Bahal on Blue Origin flight
And he's now set for liftoff with Blue Origin, the space company owned by US billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos who most famously owns Amazon.
Welcoming Arvi Bahal on the New Shepard programme, Blue Origin wrote on X, 'Welcome to Astronaut Village, NS-34 Crew!'
As reported by Blue Origin, the mission will launch from West Texas; the flight window opens at 7:30 am local time.
This will be the 14th human flight and the 34th total for Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin New Shepard programme. It has flown 70 people past the planet's atmosphere so far.
Who will accompany Arvi Bahl?
Joining Bahal on his space journey are Turkish businessman Gokhan Erdem, Puerto Rican meteorologist-journalist Deborah Martorell, British philanthropist Lionel Pitchford, entrepreneur JD Russell, and Justin Sun, ambassador and former Permanent Representative of Grenada.
Earlier on April 14, pop star Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King, and four other women were among the Blue Origin crew that took around 11 minutes to fly over the Kármán line before splashing down safely on Earth.
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