Last month we reported on plans for The Gateway Foundation to open the world’s first “space hotel” in 2027. Now, the nascent industry of “space tourism” has just taken another major step forward.

Two companies, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, are building spacecraft capable of sending private clients on suborbital flights to the edge of space, lasting several minutes. They have already had several bookings and have begun to train the wealthy individuals who will be the first official “space tourists.”

Glenn King is the director of spaceflight training at the National Aerospace Training and Research Center, a private company based in Pennsylvania that has already trained nearly 400 future Virgin Galactic passengers for their trips.

“The oldest person I trained was 88 years old,” King told the Associated Press.

The training program lasts two days—a morning of classroom instruction and tests in a centrifuge.

This involves putting the trainee in a single-seat cockpit at the end of a 25-foot-long (eight-meter-long) arm and spinning them around to simulate gravitational force or G force.

A medical team is on hand at all times.

NASA’s training for shuttle crew members lasted two years, but the duration has been drastically reduced by the commercial space industry because of the “numbers of people that want to get up in space,” King said.

“We can’t take two years to train these people,” he said. “We’ve got to get this down to a matter of days to get these people up. These people aren’t crews, just strictly passengers,” he noted.

“For a passenger, there isn’t a lot of work for you to do other than just relax, endure the G forces of launch or reentry,” says King. And then once you’re orbital, enjoy the view out the window.”

So far, King says that the pass rate for the training course has been “99.9 percent.” The cost for the training class ranges from several thousand dollars to as much as $10,000 if special care or medical monitoring is needed.

Of course, for now, the single biggest barrier to “spaceflight for all” remains the price tag.

Some 600 people have booked flights on Virgin Galactic, the company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, and thousands more are on a waiting list. The cost per flight? A spectacular $200,000 to $250,000.

Virgin Galactic hopes to take its first private astronaut on a suborbital flight in early 2022, with eventual plans for 400 trips a year.

Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has not yet published prices or a calendar.

Money aside, pretty much anybody could go on a spaceflight.

“You don’t have to be in perfect physical health now to be able to go to space,” King said. “I’ve trained people with prosthetic devices. I’ve trained people with pacemakers. Just all kinds of people.”

When Will Space Tourism Be Commonplace?