Richard Seymour, of design company Seymourpowell, talked about the project during a lecture at Scarborough Library in November last year.

The spacecraft, named the Enterprise after the fictional intergalactic vessel in Star Trek, was unveiled on Tuesday in California’s Mojave desert in front of an audience that included state governor Arnold Schwarze-negger.

It is expected to start taking passengers on two-and-a-half hour flights, costing £120,000 each, in 18 months time. More than 300 would-be astronauts have already bought tickets including Professor Stephen Hawking.

Each voyage will take six passengers and two pilots on a sub-orbital flight during which they will experience five minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth.

The craft will be carried up to a height of 11 miles by a mothership called Eve before detaching and firing its own rocket to propel it 65 miles above the Earth, accelerating to 2,500mph.

Seymourpowell have been working on the spacecraft’s interior – an instrumental part of the £270 million project masterminded by Sir Richard Branson.

Previous ground-breaking designs by Mr Seymour’s company include the world’s first ever cordless kettle and pocketable mobile phone.

Scarborough graphic designer Pat Argent, who has known Mr Seymour for a number of years, and organised last year’s lecture, said: “Richard’s company has always been at the forefront of industrial design.

“In terms of interiors in commercial transport design, this is a unique job as it will involve the zero gravity effect for passengers,” Mr Argent added.

Mr Seymour is a former pupil of Scarborough Boys’ High School and Scarborough Technical College.