up for a very complex task , something much more difficult that I had anticipated . I immediately knew that nine months was going to be a lot of work to get everything prepared for the flight . `` And now that I am so close to the flight , I am still feeling the pressure , I definitively have been working very long days and most nights , '' Garriott said . The training regime has three major strands : physical training , which includes preparation to acclimatize to the space environment ; practical training for day-to-day living in space ; and like any flight , be it 10 minutes or 10 days , training in safety procedures for emergency situations . Trainees generally spend nine months or more on and off-site to complete the requirements , which include everything from flight simulations to learning how to use the toilet . Eric Anderson , president and CEO of Space Adventures , the company sending Garriott into space , told CNN the training program is extensive , but does not exclude people from making the flight . `` Their total training program is a few months , but we tend
LONDON , England -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Getting `` out of this world '' with civilian space travel is not quite as simple as you may think . Ready for launch : video game programmer Richard Garriott shown in training for his space flight in October . Aside from the obvious financial limitations which restrict space tourism to the rich and the ridiculously rich , there are also significant training programs and testing to be completed before proceeding to lift-off . To gain a better insight into this training , well-known video game programmer and designer Richard Garriott , who is preparing for his own space adventure in October , is detailing in a blog what he and others have to go through in order to make it into orbit as a space traveler . Garriott has been in training since the beginning of the year and told CNN the first major thing to surprise him was the intensity of preparations . `` When I first came here in January , I thought nine months to get trained for this is going to be plenty of time . Of course , very quickly , I realized that I had signed