Andy Pasztor gives a full report here on the XCOR announcement tomorrow about the Lynx rocketplane project: Economy Fare ($100,000) Lifts Space-Tourism Race - WSJ.com (I believe this is an open link via Google. [Unfortunately, it requires a WSJ subscription.])

I received the XCOR press releases yesterday but they were embargoed till noon on Wednesday. Though that was moved on Tuesday to midnight (Pacific time) tonight, presumably to allow for [for reasons not related to] the WSJ article.

Some key points:
- Lynx will carry a pilot and a passenger.
- The first version of Lynx will go to 61km (38 miles). Second version to 110km.
- Test flights start in 2010.
- Funding from AFRL and other sources.
- The WSJ article talks about a project cost of $10M and a passenger ticket price in the $100k range. However, the PRs indicate that the ticket prices will be left up to the operators. XCOR will not run the adventure ride business itself.
- Highly reliable and robust LOX/Kerosene engines.

I consider the engines the key advance. They are extremely robust and will allow for hundreds of flights between major overhauls. Low cost access to space will come from low operational costs with fully reusable systems and this obviously requires hardware that is reliable and robust enough to run many times without expensive maintenance. Suborbital spaceflight is where such technology is being developed and proven.