Joyrides to Space!

The rocket engine making company XCOR Aerospace has announced that it will be prepared to send ordinary civilian passengers into space in two years! The craft (named the Lynx) that will be used for these trips is still in prototype phase, but it will be a two-person craft designed to take off like an airplane but return to Earth like a space shuttle. The Lynx is the size of a very small airplane which, apparently, gives it an advantage over potential competitors because it is cheaper to make and can complete multiple trips a day.
The passengers lucky (and wealthy) enough to go for one of these 'rides' will be treated to a thirty-minute journey to the edge of the atmosphere and a few minutes of weightlessness.
Another company, Virgin Atlantic, has unvieled designs for a craft that will serve the same purpose but seat eight people and provide five minutes of weightlessness.
The catch for all companies in the race for space joyrides will be to design a relatively small, cheap, yet safe, craft that can travel to and from suborbital altitudes multiple times every day without damage.

http://www.dailyastronomy.com/story.asp?ID=273914&Title=Space%20Cadets,%20Grab%20Your%20Sunscreen:%20Space%20Tourism%20Set%20for%20Liftoff