At a conference held in Chicago earlier in October, Boeing (www.boeing.com) CEO Dennis Muilenburg said he envisioned a commercial space-travel market and hypersonic aircraft shuttling travellers between continents in two hours or less.

He said that Boeing intends to be “a key player in the initial push to send humans to Mars,” competing with Elon Musk and his SpaceX company.“I’m convinced the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding a Boeing rocket.”

Mr Muilenburg said that, like SpaceX “Boeing is focused on ‘building out’ the commercial space sector near earth as spaceflight becomes more routine, while developing technology to venture far beyond the moon.”

The aerospace group is working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop a heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System for deep-space exploration. Boeing and SpaceX are also the first commercial companies NASA has selected to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

Mr Muilenburg added: “I see space tourism blossoming over the next couple of decades into a viable commercial market. The International Space Station could be joined in low-earth orbit by dozens of hotels and companies pursuing micro-gravity manufacturing and research. I think it’s a fascinating area for us.”

He also said that he could see the potential for hypersonic aircraft, travelling at upwards of three times the speed of sound.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp are both developing experimental prototypes. Lockheed’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 is being designed to reach Mach 20 (about 13,000 miles/hr), while Boeing’s X-51A WaveRider, which relies on its own shock waves for compression lift, reached Mach 5.1 in 2013. “Costs will need to drop substantially before these experimental spacecraft can be seriously considered for commercial use,” Mr Muilenburg said.