Richard Branson Has Space Tourism Competition

It's hard to imagine commercial competition existing for a service that isn't even a reality yet, but when it comes to Space Tourism, anything goes.

U.S. company XCOR is designing a 'rocket plane' that, unlike Virgin's spaceliners, will only have room for two people; A pilot and a passenger. The finished design will be called The Lynx (artists impression in the picture).

Because of it's small size (The Lynx would be just 8.5 metres in length) and economical nature, XCOR says that The Lynx could operate several times a day. This would mean several people would have the chance of traveling to space, rocket plane style.

I'm still sceptical about the market for space tourism. It all sounds very pleasant, nipping into the stratosphere for an hour over lunch, but how realistic is it? Will your average working Joe really have the money to afford such a trip? And (perhaps more importantly) will he/she actually want to?