Tourist space travel, not that far away?

Xcor Aerospace announced plans for a two-seater commercial spacecraft called the Lynx on Wednesday. It was also announced that Lynx could probably take its first test flight by 2010. The spacecraft would allow passengers to take a 25-minute spaceflight. “Our company’s goal has always been to build rocket-powered vehicles that can be flown like regular aircraft,” said company president Jeffrey Greason, who claims that the Lynx is relatively environmentally friendly: “They are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid-fuel or hybrid rocket motors,” he says.