A London banker named Per Wimmer will be taking a 30-minute space ride in XCOR’s “Lynx” two-seat suborbital space plane (see our previous coverage) in 2010. Los Angeles-based XCOR is offering relatively affordable space trips at around $74,000 a pop.

Wimmer has also purchased tickets on Virgin Galactic’s and Space Adventures’ first flights –also set to take off in 2010. Those tickets are about 50% and 25% more expensive, respectively, than XCOR’s.

Says Wimmer, “It will be a real race to see which of them goes up first – but if it is Xcor, I will become the first affordable space tourist.”

Daily Mail [via Newlaunches]