Space Tourism Gets New 2-Seater

California's XCor Aerospace is jumping aboard the space-tourism bandwagon with a new rocket plane, the Los Angeles Times reports. For $100,000, one passenger at a time will be able to ride the Lynx to 200,000 feet and feel about 90 seconds of weightlessness. With flight tests beginning in 2010, XCor aims to be the second company in the business.

The first is aircraft designer Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites; Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will begin testing Rutan’s six-seater later this year. “I'm not that interested in who's first,” says an XCor founder, who expects demand despite the hefty price tag, citing the once-in-a-lifetime experience. Branson will likely charge $200,000—and the mogul says he’s already got $30 million in deposits. (More space tourism stories.)