Boeing Defense, Space & Security has unveiled a new commercial interior of the company’s Crew Space Transportation (CST-100) next-generation manned capsule for non-government space travellers.

The new version of CST-100 allows people other than Nasa astronauts to travel into space in future, the company said.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes sales and marketing regional director Rachelle Ornan said: "Designing the next-generation interior for commercial space is a natural progression. A familiar daytime blue sky scene helps passengers maintain their connection with Earth."

"We are moving into a truly commercial space market and we have to consider our potential customers, beyond Nasa, and what they need in a future commercial spacecraft interior."

With its partner Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing has highlighted the future commercial interior of the space capsule it is developing for Nasa, while Bigelow also unveiled a full-scale model of its BA 330 commercial space habitat.

Boeing commercial crew programme crew and mission operations director Chris Ferguson said: "We are moving into a truly commercial space market and we have to consider our potential customers, beyond Nasa, and what they need in a future commercial spacecraft interior."

The capsule’s interiors have been designed by the engineers from across Boeing who leveraged the company’s history in commercial and government aerospace.

Developed as part of Nasa’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative, CST-100 can transport up to seven crew members or a mix of crew and cargo to low-Earth-orbit destinations such, including the International Space Station and a planned Bigelow station.

Defence Technology